Your personal relationship style impacts social media ties

Your attachment style, meaning how avoidant or anxious you are in a close relationship in real life, also applies to social media platforms like Facebook, reveal researchers.

“Attachment style, thought to play a central role in romantic and parentchild relationships, was found to also play a role in people’s broader social network of friends,” said Omri Gillath, Professor of Psychology at the University of Kansas, who headed a new research.

The findings showed that you can predict the structure of people’s social networks and the way people manage their networks from their personality. The researchers also looked at how people manage their networks, including how they initiate, maintain and dissolve ties.

They found that people high on attachment avoidance were less likely to initiate and maintain, and more likely to dissolve social network ties. “Surprisingly, people high on anxiety were expected to be less likely to dissolve ties — they’re often concerned about being rejected or abandoned and want to merge with their relationship partners, which made us think they would be less likely to dissolve ties,” Gillath said.

However, they were found to report a higher tendency for dissolution than non-anxious people. Gillath said that due to their high levels of concern and desire to merge with others, anxiously attached people may end up pushing members away.

PHOTO: ISTOCK People high on attachment avoidance are more likely to dissolve social network ties