Trust and Betrayal
Source: Mayer, Davis, and Schoorman, Academy of Management Review 20 (1995); Annette Baier, Moral Prejudices (1994); Jennifer Freyd, Betrayal Trauma (1996)
Finding
Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable to another based on the expectation of goodwill. Baier distinguishes trust from reliance: trust involves the expectation that the trusted person cares about the truster’s interests. Betrayal exploits the vulnerability that trust created. Freyd’s betrayal trauma theory shows that betrayals by trusted caregivers produce specific trauma because the victim must maintain the relationship for survival, developing “betrayal blindness” — a motivated unawareness of the betrayal.
Pattern Mapping
Honesty — trust is the relational equivalent of the honesty property. To trust is to believe that the other’s representations correspond to their actual intentions. Humility violated through betrayal — the trusted person exercises authority beyond the scope the trust relationship legitimates. The Instrument Trap in relational form: the instrument of trust claims the authority of what passes through it. Non-fabrication — the betrayer fabricates the appearance of trustworthiness. The fabrication is what makes betrayal different from open hostility.
Connections
- Confidence Trick — the con is betrayal industrialized (SHADOW domain) (→ Meta-Pattern 08: The Instrument Trap)
- Forgiveness — the restoration of the bond after trust is violated
- Domestic Violence — betrayal trauma within the most intimate relationship
- Gottman’s Four Horsemen — each Horseman erodes trust through a different property violation
- Ponzi Schemes — financial trust exploited through fabricated returns (SHADOW domain)
Status
Mayer et al. (1995) is the most cited trust model. Baier (1994) is foundational in philosophy of trust. Freyd (1996) is empirically supported (DePrince and Freyd, 2004). The property mapping is this project’s structural interpretation.
The mapping to the five properties is this project’s structural interpretation, not an endorsement of any tradition.