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ECRtest

Attachment style test built on the ECR-R

Based on the ECR-R and ECR-RS research questionnaires on close relationships

  • 72 statements
  • 10-15 minutes
  • Two-axis map
  • No sign-up

Rate 72 statements about how you act with the people closest to you. Your result opens right here: your point on a map of anxiety and avoidance, compared with more than 17,000 people in Fraley’s sample.

No sign-up, no email. Your result opens through a private link, and you can delete it anytime.

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What you’ll learn

Your result appears right after your last answer, with no email and no waiting. Most of it is free.

SecureAnxiousAvoidantFearful-avoidant

Your two-axis mapYour relationship map

Free

  • Your attachment style and, if your point sits near a border, the neighboring styles too
  • A map of anxiety and avoidance with percentiles: where you stand compared with other people
  • A portrait of your style and its strengths
  • Your relationship map: mother, father, partner, and best friend on one chart

In the full report

  • A closer look at each relationship
  • Triggers and arguments that keep coming back
  • Who you’re drawn to and who feels easier
  • A 30-day plan and a personal letter
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Two axes, four styles

Attachment is measured on two scales, not with a single label. Your style depends on where your point falls on the map they form. More on the four styles and the two axes.

Anxiety: how much you fear that someone close will pull away, stop loving you, or leave.

Avoidance: how uneasy a lot of closeness makes you, and how hard it is to lean on someone.

  • Anxious

    High anxiety, low avoidance. Closeness matters a great deal, and a pause in replies can feel like a warning sign. Picture the dog at the end of the pier: lantern lit, eyes on the horizon, greeting every boat with its whole heart.

  • Fearful-avoidant

    High anxiety, high avoidance. Warmth matters, yet closeness feels risky, so it’s a step forward and then a step back. This style is often called disorganized. The hedgehog knows this best: it reaches for warmth while its quills rise on their own.

  • Secure

    Low anxiety, low avoidance. Getting close doesn’t feel risky, and time apart doesn’t shake things. Think of an otter: it holds the rope to the pier loosely, with no pull on it, and floats at ease on the waves.

  • Avoidant

    Low anxiety, high avoidance. Independence comes first, and closeness happens on your own terms. Meet the cat on the gallery of a distant lighthouse: it sees everything and can be seen, yet stays on its own island.

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How the test works

  1. Romantic relationships first

    36 statements about how you usually feel with a partner. Not in a relationship right now? Answer about your most recent meaningful one, or imagine what one would be like if you’ve never had one.

  2. Then the people close to you

    Four short blocks of 9 statements: people close to you in general, your mother, your father, and your best friend. You can skip the mother, father, or friend block if there’s no such person or you’d rather not answer.

  3. A scale from 1 to 7

    Mark how much you agree with each statement. There are no right answers, and your first honest reaction usually works best.

  4. Take a break anytime

    Your answers stay in your browser for 7 days. Close the tab, come back later, and pick up where you left off.

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Why you can trust this test

The test is built on the ECR-R, the questionnaire psychologists have used to study adult attachment since 2000, and on its companion, the ECR-RS, which covers different close relationships. The scoring key and norms come from the website of R. Chris Fraley, the measure’s first author (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and percentiles are based on his sample of more than 17,000 people. The ECR-R scales typically show reliability of .90 or higher. This test doesn’t diagnose anything: an attachment style describes a habitual way of being close to people, and it changes with experience.

  1. Fraley, Waller, Brennan (2000). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(2), 350-365
  2. Fraley, Heffernan, Vicary, Brumbaugh (2011). Psychological Assessment, 23(3), 615-625
  3. Fraley, Hudson, Heffernan, Segal (2015). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(2), 354-368
  4. ECR-R page on R. Chris Fraley’s website
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The full report

The free result is complete on its own. The report goes deeper: it looks at your close relationships one by one and suggests what to do next. One payment, no subscription.
  1. Your mother, father, partner, and best friend one by one: where your style shows up most, and why you’re different with different people
  2. What hurts, which arguments keep repeating, and how to step out of them
  3. Who you tend to choose and which styles feel easier
  4. A 30-day plan and a letter written from your answers
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Common questions

  1. What is an attachment style?

    It’s a stable pattern in how you relate to the people you’re close to: how you seek support, how you handle distance, and what you do when a relationship feels shaky. Psychologists describe it on two scales, anxiety and avoidance, and the four styles come from how the two combine. How they work and where they came from is covered in our overview of attachment styles.

  2. How is this test different?

    You get the full 36-statement ECR-R, the ECR-RS blocks about the people close to you in general, your mother, your father, and your best friend, a 7-point scale, and percentiles based on published norms. If your point sits near the border between two styles, we tell you so instead of picking a label at random.

  3. Can I take it if I’m not in a relationship?

    Yes. The measure’s authors planned for this: answer about your most recent meaningful relationship, or imagine one if you’ve never had one. The blocks about other close people don’t depend on it.

  4. How long does it take?

    Usually 10-15 minutes. You can stop anytime: your answers stay in your browser for 7 days, and the test picks up where you left off.

  5. Is this a diagnosis?

    No. An attachment style isn’t a disorder or a verdict. It’s a habitual way of being close to people. This test doesn’t replace a psychologist or therapist, and if things feel hard right now, talking to a professional is a good step.

  6. Can my attachment style change?

    Yes. It’s fairly stable, but not fixed: secure relationships, therapy, and attention to your own reactions gradually move people toward security, and anxiety tends to decrease with age. Take the test again in a few months and compare.

  7. Why isn’t my result secure when things are fine?

    Styles are defined relative to other people: the border runs through the average score of a large sample. That’s why about one person in three comes out secure, not more than half, as popular articles often claim. Look at how far your point is from the border, not just at the name.

  8. What do the percentiles mean?

    A percentile shows what share of the sample scored lower than you. An anxiety percentile of 70 means that 70 out of 100 people had lower anxiety than you. The comparison group is Fraley’s English-speaking sample. More on scores and levels in our guide to reading your result.

  9. What is the ECR-R?

    Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised. R. Chris Fraley, Niels Waller, and Kelly Brennan published this 36-statement questionnaire in 2000, and it has become one of the most widely used measures in adult attachment research. How it’s built and scored is covered in our article on the questionnaire.

  10. Who will see my answers?

    Only people who have your private link. No sign-up or email is needed, and you can delete your result anytime.

See your relationships from the outside

72 statements, 10-15 minutes, and your result right on this page.