Trust Issues Test: See How Trust and Guardedness Show up for You
This trust issues test explores suspicion, guardedness, and reassurance in close relationships using interpersonal trust research. Get an instant self-assessment result and a breakdown of your answers.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
Trust Issues Test is a free, confidential 16-question self-assessment, informed by attachment and interpersonal trust research. It takes about 8 minutes, runs entirely in your browser, and gives you a plain-language score across 3 interpretation bands plus an optional in-depth report. It is an educational screening, not a diagnosis.
Trust is a pattern, not a personality flaw
The Trust Issues Test explores how difficult it feels to rely on other people, share vulnerable feelings, and tolerate uncertainty in relationships. Difficulty trusting rarely comes out of nowhere. It usually makes sense given what someone has lived through. This screener looks at how trust difficulties show up across a few different angles, so the picture is fuller than a single label.
Suspicion and vigilance
How much you scan for hidden motives, expect to be let down, or read threat into ambiguous behavior. A vigilant mind is often a mind that learned, somewhere, that staying alert kept it safe. These answers describe your expectations and interpretations; they cannot verify another person's motives or establish that a threat is present.
Fear of betrayal and guardedness
How much you hold back, keep your guard up, or struggle to open up and be vulnerable, because letting someone in feels risky. Consider whether this guardedness occurs with everyone or mainly with someone who has broken your trust. That context matters when interpreting your result.
Testing and reassurance
How often you test partners, seek proof, or look for reassurance to settle the worry that you will be hurt or abandoned. Common, understandable, and very workable. The questions include checking up on people and worry returning after reassurance. A higher response pattern can help you identify what to discuss, without labeling you or your partner.
| Feature | Typical free quiz | Psychology.com |
|---|---|---|
| Grounded in trust research | Loosely | Yes, interpersonal trust scale |
| Links trust to attachment | No | Yes, with a path forward |
| Several angles, not one label | Rarely | Yes, suspicion, fear, testing |
| Compassionate framing | Often blaming | Yes, rooted in past experience |
| Clinician-reviewed language | Rarely | Yes, reviewed |
| Optional in-depth personalized report | No | Yes, written to your exact scores |
| Confidential (no data sent) | Often tracked | Runs in your browser |
How scoring works
Answers are scored 0–64 in total. Your result falls into one of 3 bands:
| Score | Band | What it suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 0–21 | Low trust difficulties | Your answers suggest trust generally comes fairly naturally to you. You can let people in and give them the benefit of the doubt. |
| 22–42 | Moderate trust difficulties | Your answers suggest trust is something you wrestle with at times. There are moments of guardedness, suspicion, or holding back that may get in the way of closeness. |
| 43–64 | High trust difficulties | Your answers suggest trust feels genuinely hard right now, and guardedness may be costing you closeness or peace of mind. This is worth taking seriously and gently. |
Trust issues with a partner vs trust issues in general
The Trust Issues Test helps you reflect on how suspicion, fear of betrayal, and reassurance-seeking affect closeness. Your answers describe your experience of trust; they cannot establish whether someone else is honest or safe. Consider the result alongside what has actually happened in each relationship.
Trust difficulties can show up narrowly, tied to a particular relationship or past betrayal, or broadly, affecting how you relate to friends, coworkers, and family. These patterns invite different questions. Has someone repeatedly broken agreements, or do you feel guarded even when people have been reliable? Earlier experiences may matter, but the breadth of the pattern cannot establish a childhood cause. Relationship research also considers experiences within the current relationship, so your present circumstances deserve attention alongside your history.
If your trust difficulties trace back further than any one relationship, the Childhood Trauma Test can help you see whether early experiences are still shaping how safe closeness feels now. And because guardedness and people-pleasing sometimes travel together, especially when someone learned that trusting their own needs was not safe, the Codependency Test looks at that overlapping pattern directly.
Practical ways to start rebuilding trust
Beyond therapy, there are concrete moves that help trust regrow at a pace that feels safe. The Rebuilding Trust tool walks through the steps that tend to matter most after a betrayal, for both the person who was hurt and the person trying to earn trust back. Practicing Boundaries also helps, since clear limits make it safer to stay open instead of either shutting down completely or over-explaining to keep the peace.
None of this needs to happen alone. The Psychology.com therapist directory can help you find a therapist who works with betrayal and relational trust, someone who can help you tell the difference between healthy caution and an old alarm system firing on someone who has not actually done anything wrong.
Try writing down the behavior you observed, the meaning you gave it, and what you need to ask for. A delayed reply and a repeated broken agreement deserve different responses. You can choose a small boundary or request without agreeing to disclose more than feels safe. Rebuilding trust never requires accepting threats, coercion, or repeated violations of your limits.
For example, you might say, 'When our plans change without a message, I feel unsure whether I can rely on the agreement. Can we discuss how to let each other know?' Then notice whether the response is respectful and whether the agreed behavior follows. You can revise the agreement or your boundary as you learn more; you do not have to force yourself to feel trusting on demand.
How accurate is the Trust Issues Test?
This is an original educational self-assessment informed by trust research. Its score bands have not been established as clinical thresholds. The original research describes predictability, dependability, and faith in close relationships; this page uses its own questions about trust difficulties. Evidence for the research scale does not establish the accuracy of this adaptation.
A higher result means you endorsed more difficulty trusting on these questions. It cannot identify the cause, prove a childhood explanation, or decide whether to stay in a relationship. Use examples from your own life when discussing the result. The Attachment Style Test can add context about closeness, and the tests hub offers other self-assessments if a different concern feels more relevant.
When answering, keep the questionnaire's general focus in mind. If a recent argument dominates your answers, note that beside your result. A later change in score could reflect a different situation or interpretation of a question; this self-assessment has not established how much change counts as meaningful improvement.
Methodology & sources
This screener is informed by research on interpersonal trust, including the trust scale developed by Rempel, Holmes, and Zanna (1985), which describes trust in close relationships across dimensions like predictability, dependability, and faith, and by adult attachment theory, which links difficulty trusting to early relational experiences. The items are written in plain, compassionate language and use a standard agreement format. The engine sums your responses into a single trust-difficulty score and sorts it into low, moderate, or high bands. It is a self-reflection tool, not a validated clinical instrument, and it is deliberately worded to reduce shame and self-blame.
This is offered for education and self-reflection, not as a clinical or diagnostic test. Difficulty trusting is not a disorder and not a character flaw. It is usually a protective pattern that made sense given past experiences, and patterns can change. With self-awareness, safe relationships, and sometimes therapy, trust can be rebuilt. Read your result as a gentle starting point, not a verdict.
The theme breakdown groups responses for reflection. It does not provide independently validated subscale diagnoses or a probability that a partner will betray you. This adaptation should not be presented as the original Rempel, Holmes, and Zanna instrument.
References
- Rempel JK, Holmes JG, Zanna MP. Trust in Close Relationships. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1985;49(1):95-112.
- Rotter JB. A New Scale for the Measurement of Interpersonal Trust. J Pers. 1967;35(4):651-665.
- Mikulincer M. Attachment Working Models and the Sense of Trust: An Exploration of Interaction Goals and Affect Regulation. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998;74(5):1209-1224.
- Simpson JA. Foundations of Interpersonal Trust. In: Kruglanski AW, Higgins ET, eds. Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles. New York: Guilford Press; 2007:587-607.
- Original trust research and instrument context: doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.49.1.95
- Trust in close relationships revisited. Original research on trust across relationship stages. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12316384/
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 16). Trust Issues Test. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tests/trust-issues
Trust Issues Test FAQ
What are trust issues?
Trust issues describe a persistent difficulty believing that others will be reliable, honest, and there for you. It can look like expecting betrayal, struggling to open up, reading too much into small actions, or testing people to see if they will stay. It is a pattern, not a diagnosis, and it usually develops for understandable reasons.
What causes difficulty trusting?
Trust difficulties may relate to betrayals, broken promises, infidelity, or experiences with unreliable caregivers. Attachment research examines how expectations about closeness relate to trust, while relationship research also considers a partner's behavior in the present. A questionnaire cannot identify your personal cause. Consider when the difficulty began, where it appears, and whether there are current reasons for caution before drawing conclusions about yourself.
Can trust issues be overcome?
Trust patterns can change, although progress and the support needed vary. Self-awareness, consistent and safe relationships, and the support of a therapist may help you practice sharing, asking directly for reassurance, and tolerating uncertainty. Rebuilding trust also depends on the other person behaving reliably. You do not owe renewed trust to someone who continues to harm you.
Are trust issues related to attachment style?
Often, yes. Difficulty trusting frequently overlaps with anxious or avoidant attachment patterns, which shape how safe closeness feels. Exploring your attachment style can add useful context. If you are curious, our attachment style test looks at this directly. The Attachment Style Test can support that reflection, but neither result explains every relationship or establishes why you feel guarded.
Is this test a diagnosis?
No. Difficulty trusting is not a medical or psychiatric condition, so there is nothing here to diagnose. This is an educational, self-reflection tool. If trust difficulties are causing you distress or straining your relationships, a licensed therapist can help you work through them.
How do you fix trust issues in a relationship?
Rebuilding trust usually starts with naming the pattern and discussing specific behavior, needs, and boundaries. Consistent, dependable behavior over time matters more than promises alone. Consider a small agreement you can both observe and revisit, without surveillance or pressure to disclose private information. An individual or couples therapist can help clarify what repair would require when conversations keep returning to the same hurt.
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