Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon of questioning your accomplishments and associating your success with luck, good timing, or tricking others into believing that you are smarter than you feel you are. It is connected to the fear that someone will finally ‘find out‘ that you are a ‘fraud’.
Impostor syndrome arises in any environment where your merit is being judged. The highly competitive and stressful world of academia, where being a workaholic is frequently encouraged presents, unfortunately, a natural high risk of impostor feelings. This is especially true for minorities and other individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, who are constantly forced to prove their worth in an academic setting, with the result that, in spite of all their accomplishments, they still feel like they do not belong.
“Only Because I Was at the Right Place at the Right Time” – Dealing with Impostor Syndrome (Maria Zurek)
https://www.lindau-nobel.org/blog-dealing-with-impostor-syndrome/