Why Trust is in the deck
Trust is card 34. It’s in the deck because couples don’t agree on what it looks like, and phones make the gap visible.
A 2024 study on privacy and transparency between partners found two readings. For some participants, trust meant open access: shared passwords, phones left unlocked. For others, trust meant never needing to look. The participants split, and the one thing they agreed on was that access should be mutual.
Read from different places
A second paper, presented at CHI 2026, adds a quieter problem. Some partners avoid talking about privacy at all, because raising it feels like a sign of distrust. The researchers call this “privacy silence”.
That’s where a card helps. Nobody has to start the topic. The card came up, and the word is on the table.
If you searched for questions about trust in a relationship, here’s what Thesis gives you: the word Trust, a die, and three follow-up questions from the rule card. Each of you talks from your own side, and the other listens.
Trust isn’t only about partners. A player might talk about a friend who kept a secret, or a parent who let them go out alone. It sits in the Relationships cluster with Privacy, Loyalty and Betrayal.
The other side: Window
The other side is Window. It was picked for waiting, watching, and a view that means home.
How to play this card
Draw it. Choose a side: Trust or Window. Roll the die. Look at the word from that side.
The three follow-ups on the rule card are What did that feel like? Who else was there? Has it always meant that to you? Ask gently, without judging.
Keep going
- Loyalty · card 48
- Betrayal · card 24
- Jealousy · card 28
- Thesis: the game · Play online · Research