Here are tropes regarding trust and the act of trusting.
See also Loyalty Tropes, The Secret Index (being trusted with keeping a personal or professional secret), Truth and Lies, and Betrayal Tropes (for when trust is broken).
Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: An authority figure is opposed by their subordinates and everyone else.
- Betrayal Insurance: Just in case someone tries to betray them, a character has a surefire punishment in store.
- The Cassandra: She's completely trustworthy and everyone should believe her when she predicts incoming doom, but no one does.
- The Confidant: A reliable friend the main character can confide in.
- The Consigliere: A trusted right-hand advisor.
- A Doormat to His Men: The leader is too trusting of his men, thus undermining his own authority.
- Do You Trust Me?: An earnest question asked from one character to another.
- Doesn't Trust Those Guys: Someone has one or more bad experiences with someone in a group, so naturally, no one in that group can be trusted.
- Excellent Judge of Character: Someone is actually good and usually correct in guessing who to trust or not.
- Faith in the Foe: A person trusts an enemy's character.
- The Farmer and the Viper: You gave someone a chance, and it came back to bite you in the ass.
- Hated by All: A character is so bad that no one likes them. No one.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Placing trust in the obviously untrustworthy.
- Ignored Expert: A scientist who is right but not trusted by those in power.
- Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: Placing your life in your enemy's hands in the faith that they are not evil enough to kill you.
- Names to Trust Immediately: A character's name alone tells you they're a good person.
- Never Trust a Hair Tonic: Hair tonic is either completely useless or way too useful.
- Never Trust a Title: When the title has literally nothing to do with the work.
- Never Trust a Trailer: "Hey, wait! The trailer lied to us!"
- Nudity Equals Honesty: Someone wants to prove that they have no weapons. Or...anything, for that matter.
- The Only One I Trust: Even with so many other people around, there is only one person a character can trust.
- Power of Trust: Simply being told that they're trusted gives someone the strength to get the job done.
- The Promise: A very important promise is made. Maybe it's kept. Maybe it's broken. Maybe it causes a whole lot of trouble.
- The Reliable One: The one guy or girl in the group that can be depended on for anything.
- Remember That You Trust Me: Someone is in such a bad place that their friends or family actually has to remind them that they can be trusted.
- Totally Trusting Love Interest: The Love Interest who believes in their partner’s fidelity no matter what, and is justified in believing so.
- Trust-Building Blunder: There's an exercise to build trust, like "fall and I'll catch you." It is failed.
- Trust Me, I'm an X: Your profession indicates you can be trusted, because it implies that you have special wisdom to impart or you can be useful.
- Trust Password: You use a code, like a phrase of some kind, to verify that you are who you claim to be.
- Untrusting Community: A whole town full of people who don't like you.
- You Lose at Zero Trust: Your relationship in a video game is so important that if you neglect it, you will be punished!
