Impostor tendencies and academic dishonesty: Do they cheat their way to success?

College students (N = 124) completed self-reported measures of impostor tendencies and academic dishonesty (tendency to engage in plagiarism in written assignments and cheating in examinations), as well as social desirability. Based on extreme scores on the impostor measure and independent of social desirability responding, nonimpostors (20 women, 11 men) reported a greater tendency to engage in plagiarism in papers and cheating in examinations, compared to impostors (22 women, 10 men). Results indicated that students who report impostor tendencies claim lower rates of cheating and plagiarism to obtain academic success than do nonimpostors.