Title

Determining the frequency of imposter syndrome among Indian medical undergraduate students by evaluating correlation with social comparison and personality traits

Authors

Sambhu Prasad¹, Niska Sinha², Amit Kumar³, Santosh Kumar^2,* & Sweta Gupta⁴

Affiliation

¹Department of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical sciences (AIIMS), Patna, Bihar, India; ²Department of Psychiatry, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) Patna, Bihar, India; ³Department of Psychiatry, Specialist Medical Officer (Psychiatry), Bihar Health Services, Khagaria, Bihar, India; ⁴Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics, Government Dental College, Rahui, Nalanda, Bihar, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Sambhu Prasad - E-mail: sambhu3011@gmail.com
Niska Sinha - E-mail: niskasinha@yahoo.com
Amit Kumar - E-mail: amitkumar2kjip@gmail.com
Santosh Kumar - E-mail: santosh.kumar@igims.org
Sweta Gupta - E-mail: swetabds@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received August 1, 2026; Revised August 31, 2026; Accepted August 31, 2026, Published August 31, 2026

Abstract

Imposter syndrome can adversely affect the psychological well-being and academic experience of medical students, yet its relationship with social comparison and personality traits remains insufficiently explored among Indian medical undergraduates. The present study included 200 medical students who were evaluated using the standardized tools to assess Imposter syndrome as NEOFive Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale (CIPS), Social Comparison Scale (SCS), and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) to judge the presence of Imposter syndrome. Data shows higher prevalence of imposter syndrome among students MBBS students with a strong correlation to anxiety, social comparison, and neuroticism.

Keywords

Anxiety, emotional regulation, impostor syndrome, MBBS, personality traits, social comparison

Citation

Prasad et al. Bioinformation 22(8): 4797-4800 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.