The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is widely discussed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and has been evaluated in Computer Science students. However, formal research on IP in software engineers has yet to be conducted, although its impacts may lead to mental disorders such as depression and burnout. This study describes a survey that investigates the extent of impostor feelings in software engineers, considering aspects such as gender, race/ethnicity, and roles. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of IP on their perceived productivity. The survey instrument was designed using a theory-driven approach and included demographic questions, an internationally validated IP scale, and questions for measuring perceived productivity based on the SPACE framework constructs. The survey was sent to companies operating in various business sectors. Data analysis used bootstrapping with resampling to calculate confidence intervals and Mann-Whitney statistical significance testing for assessing the hypotheses. We received responses from 624 software engineers from 26 countries. The bootstrapping results reveal that a proportion of 52.7% of software engineers experience frequent to intense levels of IP and that women suffer at a significantly higher proportion (60.6%) than men (48.8%). Regarding race/ethnicity, we observed more frequent impostor feelings in Asian (67.9%) and Black (65.1%) than in White (50.0%) software engineers. We also observed that the presence of IP is less common among individuals who are married and have children. Moreover, the prevalence of IP showed a statistically significant negative effect on the perceived productivity for all SPACE framework constructs. The evidence relating IP to software engineers provides a starting point to help organizations find ways to raise awareness of the problem and improve the emotional skills of software professionals.

翻译：冒名顶替现象（Impostor Phenomenon, IP）在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域被广泛讨论，并已在计算机科学学生中得到评估。然而，关于软件工程师中冒名顶替现象的正式研究尚未开展，尽管其影响可能导致抑郁、倦怠等精神障碍。本研究通过一项调查，探索软件工程师中冒名顶替感的程度，考虑了性别、种族/民族和职位等因素。此外，我们研究了冒名顶替现象对其感知生产力的影响。调查工具采用理论驱动方法设计，包含人口统计学问题、经过国际验证的冒名顶替量表，以及基于SPACE框架结构测量感知生产力的问题。调查面向不同业务领域的公司发放。数据分析采用自助重抽样法计算置信区间，并使用Mann-Whitney统计显著性检验评估假设。我们收到了来自26个国家624名软件工程师的回复。自助抽样结果显示，52.7%的软件工程师经历频繁至强烈程度的冒名顶替现象，其中女性比例（60.6%）显著高于男性（48.8%）。在种族/民族方面，我们发现亚裔（67.9%）和黑人（65.1%）软件工程师比白人（50.0%）更常出现冒名顶替感。我们还观察到，已婚且有子女的个体中冒名顶替现象的发生率较低。此外，冒名顶替现象的普遍性对所有SPACE框架结构的感知生产力均表现出统计上显著的负面影响。将冒名顶替现象与软件工程师关联的证据，为组织提高对该问题的认识、改善软件专业人员情感技能提供了起点。