Sing along to Adele songs? You may be a bit anxious ...

IF YOU find yourself singing along to Adele’s hit Someone Like You, then you may be a touch anxious about your relationship.

That is according to a study which has found that preference for certain lyrics can indicate how committed or confident a person is in a relationship.

Psychologists have found that if people are inclined to fear being abandoned, they will prefer lyrics such as Adele’s, which are infected with these concerns.

On the other hand, those who hum along to The Beatles’ upbeat Love Me Do are more than likely to be very secure in their relationships, according to the University of Toronto study.

The university’s Dr Ravin Alaei said: “The lyrics of your favourite songs about relationships may help validate your thoughts and feelings but may also reveal things about your experiences of relationships that you might not have realised.”

The study divided people into four groups with different approaches to relationships, including the rejection-feeling “anxious” group, the negative and cold “avoidant” group, the confident “secure” group, and a mixed group.

The study, which was published in the journal Personal Relationships, assessed the lyrics to 7,000 different songs based on their variously “secure”, anxious”, or “avoidant” content, then asked a test group to pick out their favourite tracks.

The survey found that test group members who were “avoidant”, consistently chose songs with “avoidant lyrics”.