Hillary Clinton, Experience, and the Imposter Phenomenon

Ever notice that experienced politicians always tout their experience. Often, though, the voters don't care.

Take the 1976 Republican presidential, for example. George H. W. Bush tried to derail Ronald Reagan's campaign with an ad attacking his inexperience and describing Bush as "a president we won't have to train" (Tarpley & Chaitkin, 1992, p. 339). It didn't work. Gerald Ford got the nomination over both of them.

In the current campaign, Hillary Clinton constantly talks up her experience, saying she'll be ready to go to work "on day one." She's pushing that theme even though most national polls indicate its not at the top of voter concerns. But she keeps pushing it anyway. Why?

The answer is a phenomenon called the "Imposter Phenomenon." It's a feeling of inadequacy that a person gets on their first day on the job. It's often expressed in terms of internal thoughts of "what happens if someone figures out that I've never done this before."

The imposter phenomenon was first studied in education, where it was identified as a common feeling that affected new teachers (e.g., Byrnes & Lester, 1995). Since then the education community has revised their curricula to include practice teaching requirements for their graduates.

It also cropped up in newly hired business workers (Fried-Buchalter, 1992, 1997). A number of professional schools established intern programs so students could get the feeling of inadequacy out of the way before they actually go to work full time.

The problem, though, is that there are some jobs - particularly in politics - for which there is really no way to prepare. And the position where this is most apparent is the presidency. There is simply no way to be fully prepared to be president.