When Whistleblowers Become Traitors: Approaching Internal Relations in the Intelligence Community from a Psychological Perspective

Undergraduate: Sarah Eliza

Faculty Advisor: Joseph Cabosky
Department: Journalism & Mass Communication

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The tension between secrecy and transparency is not a new dichotomy in either US politics or popular conversation. However, when Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to the media in 2013 about an extensive surveillance program known as PRISM, the views held by many Americans regarding security and accountability reached new extremes. This study takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining one of the most central elements of this issue ¿¿¿ the Whistleblower¿¿¿s Dilemma. Referring to a situation of internal ethical conflict in which an individual must compromise one core value to uphold another, the Whistleblower¿¿¿s Dilemma has no higher stakes scenario than the United States¿¿¿ Intelligence Community (IC). This quantitative and qualitative content analysis examines interviews with IC whistleblowers who reported on classified information in order to identify motivations and deterrents to their behavior. Four psychological variables will be examined (valuation of fairness, loyalty, public service motivation and perceived personal cost) in order to identify potential similarities and differences between internal and external IC whistleblowers. The results of these findings will be used to develop internal relations strategies that ultimately increase internal reporting, decrease external reporting and contribute depth to current insider threat programs.