The Ladder of Trust – How trust is built (video 2)

August 28, 2025

The dimensions of trust show us how fragile — but also how powerful — trust can be. So how can social partners climb from fragile beginnings to strong, lasting trust? Watch the video.

The dimensions of trust show us how fragile — but also how powerful — trust can be.

Our study found that repeated interactions have a central role in building trust. They move relationships beyond weak, risk-based trust into knowledge-based, relational, and even identity-based trust.

But trust doesn’t build itself. Personal behaviour and trustworthiness are essential, as well as institutions in facilitating and stabilising trust.

In the TRUE EUROPE project, the overall objective was to identify the determinants of trust and connect them with the outcomes of industrial relations.

So how can social partners climb from fragile beginnings to strong, lasting trust? Explore the insights in our eight country case studies and comparative report in the Deliverables.