Cause behind the correlation between novice-like thinking and Impostor Syndrome

Determine the causal mechanism underlying the observed positive correlation between novice-like thinking—measured by a CLASS-derived novice-like thinking score—and feelings of Impostor Syndrome among students in Pomona College’s Physics 42 (non-majors) course.

Background

The paper finds a statistically significant direct correlation between novice-like thinking and Impostor Syndrome (p=0.000042) in the non-majors course. While the authors suggest that group paper and community-building might simultaneously reduce Impostor Syndrome and promote expert-like thinking, they emphasize that the paper does not provide a definitive causal explanation.

The authors explicitly state the absence of a definitive explanation and call for future research to explore the phenomenon, framing the causal mechanism as an open question.