2of.you Got a code already? Click here!
The receipts

Where this
comes from

Every finding on a results page carries a citation, and every citation resolves to a published study. This page is the full list, with what each part actually measured.

The instrument

The 36 statements are the ECR — Experiences in Close Relationships (Brennan, Clark & Shaver, 1998) — the standard self-report measure of adult attachment. It scores two dimensions, avoidance and anxiety, and here it is administered about a specific partner rather than about relationships in general. The four styles are the four-category model of Bartholomew & Horowitz (1991), read off those two dimensions.

Your answers are scored in your browser; only the two dimension scores ever leave it.

What the couple studies measured

The pairing findings come from studies of real couples in the 1990s: newlyweds (Senchak & Leonard, 1992), dating couples (Simpson, 1990; Collins & Read, 1990), and married pairs across the life cycle (Feeney, 1994; Cohn et al., 1992). They measured satisfaction and stability as separate outcomes — and the two don't always move together, which is why this site never blends them into one number.

Anything said about the long term is drawn only from studies that actually followed people over years: Kirkpatrick & Davis (1994) tracked 354 couples over three years; Kirkpatrick & Hazan (1994) followed 177 adults over four. Where no study has ever tracked a combination, the results page says so instead of guessing.

The limits, honestly

These samples are mostly young, mostly Western, and — for the gender-differentiated findings — heterosexual couples described in male/female terms, so that one section appears only when it honestly applies. Attachment patterns are also measurably changeable: re-tested months apart, a substantial number of people had moved (Scharfe & Bartholomew, 1994), and partners can buffer each other's insecurity (Simpson & Overall, 2014). A result here is a starting point, not a verdict.

The full source list

  1. Brennan, K. A., Clark, C. L., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult romantic attachment: An integrative overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 46–76). New York: Guilford.
  2. Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. (1991). Attachment styles among young adults: A test of a four-category model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244.
  3. Senchak, M., & Leonard, K. E. (1992). Attachment styles and marital adjustment among newlywed couples. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 9, 51–64.
  4. Simpson, J. A. (1990). The influence of attachment styles on romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 971–980.
  5. Feeney, J. A. (1994). Attachment style, communication patterns and satisfaction across the life cycle of marriage. Personal Relationships, 1, 333–348.
  6. Cohn, D. A., Silver, D. H., Cowan, C. P., Cowan, P. A., & Pearson, J. (1992). Working models of childhood attachment and couple relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 13, 432–449.
  7. Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1990). Adult attachment, working models, and relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644–663.
  8. Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Davis, K. E. (1994). Attachment style, gender, and relationship stability: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 502–512.
  9. Kirkpatrick, L. A., & Hazan, C. (1994). Attachment styles and close relationships: A four-year prospective study. Personal Relationships, 1, 123–142.
  10. Simpson, J. A., Rholes, W. S., & Nelligan, J. S. (1992). Support seeking and support giving within couples in an anxiety-provoking situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 62, 434–446.
  11. Scharfe, E., & Bartholomew, K. (1994). Reliability and stability of adult attachment patterns. Personal Relationships, 1, 23–43.
  12. Bartholomew, K., & Shaver, P. R. (1998). Methods of assessing adult attachment: Do they converge? In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp. 25–45). New York: Guilford.
  13. Simpson, J. A., & Overall, N. C. (2014). Partner buffering of attachment insecurity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23, 54–59.
  14. Kobak, R. R., & Hazan, C. (1991). Attachment in marriage: Effects of security and accuracy of working models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 861–869.
  15. Collins, N. L., & Read, S. J. (1994). Cognitive representations of attachment: The structure and function of working models. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 5, pp. 53–90). London: Jessica Kingsley.
  16. Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent–child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.

Are we compatible?

You each answer 36 statements — about each other. Ten minutes, separately, no peeking. Then both of you land on one map, with the studies attached.

Start us off

No sign-up. Nothing saved. Gone in 24 hours.