“Married to…”, “In a relationship with…”, “Married to…” It turns out that this Facebook information can tell a lot more about us than it seems!
Why do some of us report information about our relationships on Facebook, Odnoklassniki or VKontakte, while others do not? Psychologists from Northwestern University in Illinois (USA) have devoted three studies to this issue in order to figure out what psychological characteristics and motivation determine such “openness” or “secrecy”*.
Here are some of their findings.
1. This or that strategy of behavior in the social network is largely determined by type of affectionthat has been formed in humans. In the context of the study, the authors found two of them to be the most significant:
- Concerned attachment. She is characterized by anxiety about relationships with a partner. People of this type need a high degree of intimacy, they are constantly on the lookout for any possible threats to their relationship. Often they perceive themselves negatively, and the partner, on the contrary, positively.
- Avoidant type of attachment. People of this type, on the contrary, experience discomfort from too close relationships, they tend to maintain a distance, it is hard for them to feel dependent on a partner. Many of them tend to have a negative attitude towards the other, they have doubts about how much he can be trusted, whether he can be relied upon.
The results of the study showed that users of the “concerned” type are much more willing to share information about their “romantic status”. And users of the second type (as well as their partners) publish it extremely rarely.
Read more:
- “By giving up attachment to another, we deprive ourselves of a mirror”
2. Publication of personal information also encourages lack of confidence in relationships. Whether the researchers instilled these doubts in the subjects “in the laboratory”, or in fact there were some kind of cracks in the relationship, in any case, both groups of participants sought to communicate on the social network about their relationship – in other words, to make them “visible” and thereby verifying their authenticity.
3. Regardless of the type of attachment, it also plays a role user motivation. For example, the desire to present oneself to “friends” in the most favorable light. For someone to inform “the city and the world” about their romantic relationship or marriage – it means to increase self-esteem. It is important for others to present themselves in the eyes of others as a happy person with a well-established personal life.
* L. F. Emery et al. «Can You Tell That I’m in a Relationship? Attachment and Relationship Visibility on Facebook» – подробней см. psp.sagepub.com.