Abstract
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is associated with paradoxical trust cognitions and behaviours. While BPD is associated with difficulty forming trust and maintaining cooperation in trust-based exchanges, design and analytical methodology best suited to reveal the temporal ebb and flow of trust have been underutilized. We used an economic game to examine the trajectories of trust as it forms, dissolves, and restores in response to trust violation and repair, and to explain how these vary as a function of borderline pathology. Young adults (N = 234) played a 15-round trust game in which partner trustworthiness was varied to create three phases: trust formation, trust violation, and trust restoration. Discontinuous growth modelling was employed to capture the trends in trust over time and their relationship with BPD trait count. BPD trait count was associated with an incongruous pattern of trust behaviour in the form of declining trust when interacting with a new and cooperative partner, and paradoxically, increasing trust following multiple instances of trust violation by that partner. BPD trait count was also associated with trust restoring at a faster rate than it was originally formed. By adopting a methodology that recognizes the dynamic nature of trust, this study illustrated at a micro level how relational disturbances may be produced and maintained in those with a moderate to high BPD trait count. Further investigation of the factors and processes that underlie these incongruous trust dynamics is recommended.
Highlights
Koppe [18] found no difference between Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) patients and healthy controls (HC) in the average amount invested during the rupture or repair phases but found evidence that patients may transfer less during the cooperative phases, what might loosely be defined as the trust formation phase
BPD trait count had a significant negative correlation with monetary units (MU) transferred during formation but was not found to be significantly associated with MUs transferred during the dissolution or restoration phases
Trustworthiness appraisals were positively associated with the number of MUs transferred during all three trust phases while fairness appraisals were positively associated with the amount transferred during the dissolution phase only
Summary
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a complex and often enduring disorder with a prevalence rate of 1–2% in the community [1], and 15 to 20% among patients in psychiatric. Koppe [18] found no difference between BPD patients and healthy controls (HC) in the average amount invested during the rupture or repair phases but found evidence that patients may transfer less during the cooperative phases, what might loosely be defined as the trust formation phase The latter findings were consistent with a 5-round TG study in which feedback on trustee reciprocity was withheld [17]. These studies have utilized discontinuous growth modelling [DGM: 36, 37], a derivative of mixed effects modelling that can model longitudinal data whilst accounting for discontinuities in the data such as an experimenter-induced trust violation event This methodological and analytical pairing has enabled examination into the individual differences and higher-level factors that influence how trust forms, dissolves, and restores. In both the absolute and relative models, the main effects of cognitive reflective ability and gender will be controlled
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