Birdnow's Aviary

February 07, 2026

How Science Will Die

Timothy Birdnow

Oh puh-leeze!

Even highly successful women in STEM often feel like impostors despite strong evidence of their abilities

There are a number of options here. One, they may have reason to feel that way as they may indeed be affirmative action hires. Two, if they do worry about this who cares? 3. Pretty much everyone feels like a fraud at some point in their lives and when doing science, which is so often grueling labor with little reward, it is only natural to feel that way. No doubt men do to, but women are particularly prone to navel-gazing.

This research is just more proof that psychology is the dufus of the sciences (As Shedon pointed out on The Big Bang Theory).

The article states:

This experience is known as impostorism, a psychological pattern that is distinct from low self-esteem or depression. According to Binghamton University, State University of New York, psychology researcher Jiyun Elizabeth Shin, impostorism involves persistent self-doubt even in the presence of clear evidence of achievement. Shin is a lecturer who leads the Social Identity & Academic Engagement Laboratory and recently published research on the topic in the journal Social Psychology of Education titled "Impostorism: Prevalence and its relationships with mental health, burnout, dropout consideration, and achievement among graduate women in STEM.”

Her findings highlight just how common these feelings are. Shin’s research shows that 97.5% of women enrolled in STEM graduate programs report experiencing impostor feelings at least at a moderate level. The likelihood appears even higher for those with multiple marginalized identities, including women of color.

"Impostorism is a feeling like being an intellectual fraud even when there is strong evidence of success,” Shin explained. "You believe that other people are overestimating your abilities and intelligence, and you fear that one day you’ll be exposed as incompetent and undeserving of your success.”

Of course what the study's lead author suggests is that these women are indeed as capable as any male colleague. That may be true but it may not; it's what is wrong with affirmative action in the first place. If you get let into anything based not on the quality of your work but on secondary traits, like your sex or race, you are going to always wonder if you really belong. It is exactly what is wrong with the policies of Woke culture. THAT should be the takeaway here.

But of course it's not; the study is trying to suggest we need to do more to bolster women in the sciences.

The fact of the matter is STEM isn't most women's cup of tea, and that is driven by biology and God. Women are more communal and don't like to fight as much as men. STEM, unlike the soft sciences, is essentially a combat sport; there can only be one right answer. That answer is divined by a rigorous and sometimes vicious adversarial process.

Men evolved to hunt and fight wars; it's our primary purpose, along with siring children. Women evolved to gather and prepare food, and to raise children. As a result men are far more likely to eschew socializing and communal thinking while women are more likely. Women tend to be right brained; creative and interested in harmony and also tend to be more verbal. Men tend toward greater practicality and achievements.

That's not to say there aren't women who are good at it, there are many. And that isn't to say There aren't men who are terrible at STEM precisely because they refuse to color inside the lines. My point is women IN GENERAL have less interest in a profession that is about being right and rubbing the loser's nose in it.

Here's another quote from the article where we can gain insight.

Impostorism is rooted in how people interpret their abilities and past accomplishments. Those affected often struggle to accept success as something they earned. Instead, they credit outside factors such as luck or favorable circumstances. This leads to anxiety about future performance and a lingering fear that others will eventually realize they are not as capable or intelligent as they seem.

Isn't imposturism EXACTLY the mental illness stalking Western Civilization these days? People - especially women who are the most radical Leftists of all nowadays - think it was just luck or favorable circumstances that led to the dominance of Western culture and that we are essentially frauds, and the only way to show we aren't is by ridding ourselves of the very thing that gave us that dominance. Now the Left tells children that we have no right to exist at all, that our only salvation lies in self-flagellation and our willingness to commit cultural hari-kari. So many young people buy into this too.

The very fact we are discussing this about female scientists is proof that our Western world is overcome with a false sense of guilt. We advanced human civilization immensely and while we weren't perfect we were still generally better than the peoples we displaced, our competitors. We never ate other people, or shrunk their heads, or enslaved them for sexual purposes. We did not torture, by and large. Yes, we kept slaves (something almost every culture did before the Industrial Revolution and often in a far nastier way.) And in return we gave so much - food, medicine, clothing, art, science, etc. So why feel guilty? We didn't do anything worse than any other culture ever did.

But instead of rejoicing in our earned success we sit about worrying about the feelings of women scientists and tut-tut about how bad Western civilization is for anyone who is not a white male.

White males die younger than white females, and in fact white males are the only demographic going backward in terms of life expectancy. Even black males are living longer. But not white guys.

Part of it is this extreme emphasis on anyone considered a "minority" which even includes white women. (There are more white women then white men, btw.) If a psychologist wants to look for REAL traumatization there is fertile ground in the way wokeism is destroying the hopes and dreams and lives of white boys. But to get ahead in academia these days you have to blame the white man for everything and hate on him as best you can. That's what this study on imposturism is ultimately about; it's saying The Man is holding women down, another form of intellectual and sexual bondage.

Doubt me on this? Look at these paragraphs:

Shin’s study also found clear links between impostorism and well-being. "Findings from my research showed that impostorism predicted poorer overall mental health, greater burnout, and increased consideration of dropout among graduate women in STEM,” she said.

A fixed mindset – the belief that abilities are innate and cannot be improved – is also associated with impostorism. When people see intelligence as unchangeable, challenges can feel like confirmation that they never deserved success. As a result, approaches that encourage more flexible views of ability may help reduce impostor feelings.

Even though impostorism is common among high achievers, many people hesitate to talk about it. Keeping these concerns private can deepen feelings of isolation and stress. Open conversations may play an important role in coping with impostor feelings and protecting mental and emotional health.

"More research is needed to better identify strategies to reduce impostor experiences, but social support may be helpful in reducing impostor fears,” Shin said.

Again, I would suggest that women shouldn't be advanced over men if we do not want imposturism; it's a natural outcome of DEI.

(BTW intelligence largely IS fixed; it can drop but rarely increase once a child is sufficiently developed. That she would say this proves she's an idiot.)

And that happens all the time. My brother is an historian and he graduated with top honors for his Ph.D. and has multiple books and articles published as well as has taught for decades and been given outstanding performance reviews. While this isn't science it does illustrate how academia works. The university where he is working adjunct just hired a new professor - a woman. Brian knew her when she was working on her Ph.D. - she barely got it, being awarded "with reservations". Bran said she knew nothing about history too, except for a very limited field involving literature. But she had ovaries and estrogen and so she was spirited to the top of her field. The university he works at never once considered him, because he was a white male; this substandard woman got the tenured position.

That is sadly how academia works and if there is a crisis in imposturism it's because of THAT, not some "antiquated" sexist idea.

Oh, I notice the article makes no mention of how many male scientists - especially white males - feel this way too. But of course this research is merely a tool to advance more DEI, more women pushed into positions for which they are not fit or to which they really aren't that interested.

This is exactly how science will die.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 11:14 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 Lee Iacocca, after fathering the Mustang for Ford, and then being hired by Chrysler to bring it out of bankruptcy, and doing so successfully, told in his book that until he retired he kept having the feeling that people were someday going to find out he couldn't do all the things they thought he could do. It is an entirely normal feeling, felt by the vast majority of successful people.

Posted by: Bill H at February 07, 2026 11:48 PM (FRG6e)

2 Ah yes iBill; I had forgotten about that one. It IS entirely normal, especially if you are thought to be some kind of wunderkind.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at February 08, 2026 07:21 AM (umJ+Y)

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