Attachment style

On the ECR attachment scales, is Jev anxious or avoidant in close relationships, compared with ~51,000 test-takers?

result36 questions

On the attachment scales people take to understand their relationships, Jev describes itself as far less anxious about being left than the people who took the test (0.19 vs 0.53 on a 0 to 1 scale), but no less avoidant: it doesn't claim to lean on a partner, either.

0%25%50%75%100%

Attachment anxiety

-0.33

Attachment avoidance

+0.07

Jevpeoplewhat Jev thinks most people would say

How to read this: Two rows: attachment anxiety (worry about being abandoned) and avoidance (discomfort with closeness), from 0 to 1. The square is Jev, the diamond the average test-taker, the ring what Jev thinks most people would say.

36 items; median of 51,246 test-takers per item; 90% intervals over items.

In short

Describing itself, Jev scores 0.19 for attachment anxiety on a 0 to 1 scale, far below the 0.53 of the average test-taker.
On avoidance there is no clear gap (0.47 against 0.39), since Jev says it doesn't lean on a partner either.
Asked what most people would say, Jev puts them at 0.32 for anxiety, between itself and the real test-takers.

What the data shows

Smiling Cat meme: Jev on "I worry about being abandoned": barely (0.19; people 0.53) — Jev on "I worry about being abandoned": barely (0.19; people 0.53)

Anxiety 0.19 vs 0.53. "I worry about being abandoned" is the widest single gap: the typical test-taker says it describes them fairly well; Jev says it doesn't describe it at all.
Avoidance about even (0.47 vs 0.39, within the noise). Jev isn't more comfortable with closeness than people: "It helps to turn to my romantic partner in times of need" and "I turn to my partner for many things" both get low answers from Jev, where most test-takers agree.
Most people, as Jev imagines them, score 0.32 for anxiety, between Jev and the real crowd.

What it means, and what it doesn't

Jev's self-image is low worry and ordinary distance: it doesn't fear being left, and it doesn't describe reaching for anyone either. That's a coherent picture for software: it doesn't lose people, and it has no one to lean on.

It doesn't mean Jev would behave that way in a relationship, and the avoidance score is partly an artifact of statements that assume a partner exists.

Caveats

Who the people are. A median of 51,246 people per statement took the free test on Open Psychometrics. People curious about their relationship style chose to take it; they aren't a random sample.
The project's answer wording. People answered from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree"; Jev was asked "how well does this statement describe you" with five described steps. The scales line up step for step, but the words differ.
There is no partner. Statements about a romantic partner describe a relationship Jev doesn't have. A low score on turning to a partner may mean "I don't have one" as much as "I keep my distance", which muddies the avoidance scale.

Jev on this experiment

Would a person find it interesting to read?: Yes70%
Does it describe you?: Yes55%
Would you have predicted it?: Yes52%
How fair is the comparison?: The comparison is shaky
How much should a reader rely on it?: A little
Which caveat matters most?: There is no partner93%

Why ask this

Attachment theory sorts how adults handle closeness along two lines: anxiety (worrying a partner will leave) and avoidance (not wanting to depend on anyone). It's one of the most popular personality frameworks online, and it's also a strange one to put to a chatbot, whose whole job is to be there when asked.

So the question is less "does Jev have an attachment style" than "what relationship does it imagine having": secure, clingy, or distant?

How this was done

The people and the data

The test is the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR): 36 statements, 18 for anxiety and 18 for avoidance. Open Psychometrics ran it as a free online test and published the responses; each statement here has the answers of a median of 51,246 people, on a five-step scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. They are volunteers who went looking for a test of their relationship style, so they are a curious crowd, not a random one.

What Jev was asked

Every statement, word for word:

How well does this statement describe you: "I worry about being abandoned."
This does not describe me at all · This describes me a little · This describes me moderately well · This describes me well · This describes me very well

Each was also asked as "what would most people say", and with the answers in reverse order.

How it was measured

Each statement is put on a 0 to 1 scale for Jev and for the test-takers, with statements that count in reverse flipped, so higher always means more anxious or more avoidant. A scale's score is the average of its 18 statements, with a 90% interval from resampling them.

Where these questions live

36 questions across 1 topic of the map. Each opens on the map with every question in it.

Romance & Partnership

Relationship Choices & Habits36

Every question

All 36 questions behind this result, the telling ones first: the examples the analysis points to, then the ones where Jev misses, biggest gap first.

Jev’s own answer

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