The Rashomon Effect: Why the Same Event Creates Heroes, Villains, and Victims - All at Once

How leaders can navigate clashing narratives, fractured truths, and the hidden biases that shape every story we tell, including our own.

Ten years ago, an event unfolded in my life that I’ve replayed hundreds of times - not because I wanted to, but because I had to.

What struck me most wasn’t what happened, but how differently people remembered it.

Same people. Same conversations. Same events. Yet depending on who you spoke to, I was either the loyal colleague trying to save a sinking ship… or the convenient villain in a story someone else needed to tell.

It was my first real encounter with the Rashomon Effect - long before I knew its name.

And the more leaders I work with, the more I see this: we’re not separated by facts, but by the stories wrapped around them.

1. The Rashomon Effect: When One Reality Splits Into Many

In Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, four people witness the same incident and each recalls it differently - passionately, confidently, and sincerely.

No one is lying. But no one is fully right either.

Psychologists agree: our brains don’t record events; they interpret them. What we “see” is shaped by:

• our past experiences
• our insecurities
• our motives
• our roles
• our emotional state

Which means: truth is rarely a single straight line — it’s a mosaic of partial perspectives.

2. How Leaders Get Blindsided by Competing Realities

In leadership, we often assume everyone shares the same context. But the Rashomon Effect guarantees they don’t.

Two people can leave the same meeting with completely different conclusions about:

• what was agreed
• who was responsible
• what the tone meant
• who acted with integrity
• what the next steps are

This misalignment isn’t a failure of communication - it’s a failure to recognise perception divergence.

“The facts don’t change. The frame around the facts does.”

If you don’t acknowledge that people experience events differently, you’ll be fighting ghosts instead of solving problems.

3. Why the Same Event Creates Heroes, Villains, and Victims

When narratives fracture, people unconsciously edit their versions to:

• protect their self-image
• justify past decisions
• avoid blame
• preserve control
• make sense of chaos

This is what Cialdini calls the Consistency Principle - we bend the story to stay consistent with who we believe we are.

That’s how, in the wake of the same event:

• someone casts themselves as the hero who “tried to fix everything”
• someone else becomes the victim of circumstances
• someone else becomes the villain, even if they weren’t

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: everyone believes their version.

4. When Memory Becomes the Unreliable Narrator

Neuroscience shows that every time we recall an event, we reconstruct it - not retrieve it.

Memory changes with:

• emotion
• time
• influence from others
• stress
• repetition

Which means the longer a conflict lasts, the more each narrative drifts away from the original moment.

Gladwell’s work and Elizabeth Loftus’ research are clear: memory is not a camera - it’s a storyteller.

And storytellers revise their drafts.

5. How Wise Leaders Rise Above Conflicting Stories

The weak leader asks: “Who is right?”

The wise leader asks: “What is true in each version?”

Here’s how to navigate the Rashomon Effect:

a) Triangulate Reality

Cross-check stories. Truth usually hides in the overlaps.

b) Separate Facts From Frames

Facts are shared. Interpretations are personal.

c) Build Psychological Safety

People reveal more when they don’t fear blame.

d) Slow Down Your Judgment

Certainty feels good, but curiosity uncovers truth.

e) Use After Action Reviews (AARs)

A structured reflection cuts through emotional memory and aligns perspectives before narratives drift.

6. A Quiet Truth About Leadership and Perception

When my own story split into multiple interpretations, I learned something painful - but liberating:

People don’t see you as you are. They see you as they are.

Some saw loyalty. Some saw threat. Some saw an opportunity to rewrite their part in the story.

But time has a way of revealing what emotion once distorted.

And that’s the final lesson of the Rashomon Effect:

Truth may be slow, but it has a long memory.

Final Reflection

In leadership - as in life - the goal isn’t to win the narrative. It’s to understand the narratives.

Because perception shapes judgment. Judgment shapes decisions. Decisions shape destinies.

Reality may be shared, but truth is fragmented. Wisdom is learning to see through more than one lens.