What is "trust fall"

alt. An exercise in which one person lets him- or herself fall without trying to stop it, relying on their friend(s) to catch them. n. An exercise in which one person lets him- or herself fall without trying to stop it, relying on their friend(s) to catch them.

A trust fall is a purported trust-building game often conducted as a group exercise in which a person deliberately allows themselves to fall, relying on the other members of the group (spotters) to catch the person. There are many variants of the trust fall. For instance, in one type, the group stands in a circle, with one person in the middle with arms folded against his chest and falls in various directions, being pushed by the group back to a standing position before falling again.

In another variant, a person stands on an elevated position (such as a stage, stepping stool or tree stump) and relying on multiple people to catch the person. This variant is potentially more dangerous and therefore it is all the more crucial to have the rest of the group in position and ready to catch him before he steps onto the platform. This type of trust fall was shown in the film Mean Girls during the "attitude makeover" scene, and in season 4 of HBO drama The Wire. Trust falls are frequently seen in ropes courses.

In 2010, a Comedy Central show named Tosh.0 introduced a new variant of trust falls known as "surprise trust falls", which involved the host Daniel Tosh approaching random people in public, shouting "Trust Fall!" and falling into said person. Two years later, Blake Grigsby revives the surprise trust fall concept with a viral YouTube video called "Trust Fall Attack".