Attachment Style Quiz Goes Viral, Causes Spike in Anxious-Preoccupied Breakups

A viral attachment style quiz circulating on social media has caused what relationship therapists are calling 'a mass diagnostic event,' in which hundreds of thousands of people have identified their partners' attachment styles based on seventeen multiple-choice questions and are now ending relationships accordingly. The quiz, titled 'What's Your Attachment Style? Take This Quiz and Ruin Your Relationship!,' was published on a lifestyle website and has been taken over 2.3 million times. It assigns users one of four attachment styles — secure, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant, or fearful-avoidant — based on questions about texting habits, feelings about cuddling, and 'how you react when your partner takes more than ten minutes to respond to a message.' 'The quiz told me I'm anxious-preoccupied and my boyfriend is dismissive-avoidant,' said user Brittany Regulation. 'It said we're incompatible at a fundamental neurobiological level. We'd been happy for four years, but you can't argue with neurobiology. I broke up with him over FaceTime.' Relationship therapist Dr. Helen Secure has seen a dramatic increase in clients citing attachment theory as grounds for ending otherwise functional relationships. 'I had a couple come in last week,' Dr. Secure said. 'They'd been together eleven years. Happy. Communicative. Supportive. She took the quiz, got anxious-preoccupied, he got dismissive-avoidant, and she told him their attachment styles were irreconcilable. He asked what an attachment style was. She said exactly.' Dr. Secure notes that attachment theory is a legitimate clinical framework developed through decades of research. 'It was not designed to be reduced to a quiz that asks whether you prefer texting or calling and then tells you your relationship is doomed. That's not science. That's horoscopes with a bibliography.' The quiz's creator has issued an update adding a disclaimer: 'This quiz is for entertainment purposes only and should not be used to make major life decisions.' The disclaimer was added after the creator's own partner took the quiz and 'had some questions.'