Lemon-juice invisibility and you

Why you're more talented than you realize

Can lemon juice and a failed bank robbery cure your imposter syndrome?

In 1995, McArthur Wheeler and Clifton Johnson robbed two Pittsburgh banks. It was standard bank robbery stuff. They held up the tellers at gunpoint. They made off with about $5,200. They covered their faces in lemon juice.

Wait, what?

Wheeler and Johnson didn’t wear masks or hoods or sunglasses to the robbery. Instead, the Mensa-members-in-waiting took a more scientific approach to disguise — painting their faces with lemon juice.

You know how when you’re a kid, you use lemon juice as invisible ink? Yeah. Johnson did the same thing. And as far as he could figure, lemon-juice invisibility translated from paper to skin.

He told Wheeler about the invisibility serum in Kroger’s produce section and away they went.

Against all odds, the bandits were arrested. Upon his capture, Wheeler, shocked, said, “But I wore the lemon juice. I wore the lemon juice.”

Naturally, a story like this couldn’t be left alone. In 1999, Cornell University’s David Dunning and Justin Kruger used the Lemon Juice Robberies as the cornerstone for a research paper.

The key finding of that paper:

“When people are incompetent in the strategies they adopt to achieve success and satisfaction, they suffer a dual burden: Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it … They are left with the mistaken impression that they are doing just fine.”

Translation: People who are bad at things often believe they’re great at them.

Today, this paper has expanded into a well-known cognitive bias called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

We’ve all seen it. The political know-it-all who scrapes talking points from Twitter. The dead-weight coworker convinced they’re the company superstar. William Hung on American Idol.

The Dunning-Kruger effect can be a little sad. But it can also be eye-opening. 

See, some researchers who have studied the Dunning-Kruger effect believe it also applies to the opposite.

Translation: People who are good at things often believe they’re terrible at them. 

Why? Because high performers underestimate themselves and overestimate others.

“I’m not actually good at this, it’s just easy. Everyone could do it.”

Sound familiar?

Another way to look at this: The more you doubt yourself at something, the more likely you are to be great at it.

Some of the most successful people in the world — from Maya Angelou to Tom Hanks to Serena Williams — have talked about having imposter syndrome.

Even the most talented people on the planet doubt themselves — because to them, what they do is easy. Because they’re great at it. And since we can only evaluate the world through the lens of our own experiences, we assume what comes easy to us must come easy to everyone else.

And we get imposter syndrome.

It feels backward, but the next time you catch yourself feeling like an imposter, remember that simply having that thought suggests you might excel at the task you’re uncertain about.

Train yourself to transform doubt into confidence.

Remember that others see you as an expert for a reason. 

Embrace imposter syndrome — it’s a sign of greatness.