The Things We Do to Each Other: A Study of Betrayal Narratives from the Betrayer's Perspective

ABSTRACT All trusting relationships come with a risk: that of experiencing betrayal. Most of the existing research, however, has focused on the perspective of the trustor—the person who was betrayed. In contrast, the perspective of the trustee, or betrayer, has largely been overlooked. This oversight leaves a gap in the psychological understanding of the reasons and circumstances that can lead a person to betray their close ones. This paper contributes to addressing this gap. Building on the betrayal narrative procedure, we collected more than 1100 betrayal narratives from the point of view of the betrayer, among community participants and university students across three languages and five countries (France, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, the UK). We provide here an analysis of these narratives, investigating the typology of betrayal as well as the type of relationship, behavioral response of the person betrayed, and causal attributions offered by the betrayer. Our results highlight a variety of types of betrayal and of relationships in which these occur. They also illustrate the different developments of such incidents, ranging from forgiving to cutting ties or taking revenge. As such, these results contribute to developing a better typology of betrayal in personal relationships.