Perceived Betrayal Scale

What it measures

Measures the degree to which a person believes they have been misled, taken advantage of, and let down by another party following a negative relational experience. Captures the emotional and cognitive dimensions of betrayal in an exchange relationship context. Originally developed by Grégoire and Fisher (2008) to study customer betrayal and retaliation; adapted by Harmeling et al. (2015) for use in research on transformational relationship events — encounters that dramatically disconfirm relational expectations.

Response format

7-point Likert-type (strongly disagree to strongly agree)

Scale items

• Betrayed by [entity].
• [Entity] took advantage of me.
• [Entity] misled me.
• [Entity] let me down when I needed them.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Scale created by Grégoire and Fisher (2008); adapted by Harmeling et al. (2015) for use in both B2C and B2B contexts (item phrasing adjusted slightly for B2B syntax in Study 3). CFA confirmed acceptable model fit; discriminant validity supported; AVE = .72 (Harmeling et al. 2015). Scale used only with participants in the negative relational disconfirmation condition (n=108 of 320 total Study 2 participants). Phrasing should be adapted to the specific entity and relational context under study.

Citation

Grégoire, Y., & Fisher, R.J. (2008). Customer betrayal and retaliation: When your best customers become your worst enemies. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 36(2), 247-261.

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