Why people try to make you look like the bad guy
Paula was a hardworking employee at a tech startup.
However, when her boss started to feel threatened by her success, he began to undermine her in front of their team.
He would take credit for her work and low-key criticize her in meetings.
Soon, Paula's colleagues began to see her as a "difficult" employee and avoided working with her.
Paula realized she was being made out to be the "bad guy" even though she was just trying to do her job.
Sam and his girlfriend had been together for two years when she suddenly broke up with him.
She told their mutual friends that Sam had been dishonest—even likely unfaithful—throughout their relationship.
Soon, everyone was avoiding Sam and he felt like the "bad guy."
However, when he talked to his ex-girlfriend, she admitted that she had made up the stories to justify breaking up with him.
Sam realized that sometimes people will make you out to be the "bad guy" to cover up their own mistakes.
Lisa was a newlywed who had married into a big family with some strongly set-in-stone family dynamics.
At a family gathering, Sarah accused her sister-in-law, Lisa, of being rude to her.
She told everyone that Lisa had made snide comments and ignored her all night.
However, Sarah's husband overheard the conversation and saw that Sarah had actually been the one making unkind comments to Lisa.
Lisa realized that her new arrival into this family system felt threatening to Sarah and Sarah was portraying Lisa as the “bad guy”.
I’m certain you can relate to one or all of the above scenarios.
It’s likely you've encountered your own situation or setting where someone made you out to be #thebadguy.
Let’s talk about the psychology behind it.