Connor Beaton explains research on attachment styles, arguing that avoidant attachment appears more heritable while anxious attachment is more influenced by environment. He also notes that people do not have a single fixed attachment style—different relationships can activate more avoidant, anxious, or secure responses depending on context and partner.
December 13, 2024
Avoidant attachment style is more hereditary and anxious attachment style is more environmental. So if you're somebody that really struggles with an avoidant attachment style, there's a higher likelihood that is genetic in its predisposition. And I think this is a question that I get a lot from individuals is do you have just one attachment style? The answer is no. Generally speaking, different relationships are going to activate different parts of your attachment style. So you can be in a relationship with somebody and be a little bit more anxious, and you can be in another relationship with somebody else and be a bit more avoidant, and you can be in another relationship and be a bit more secure. So different things, different environments, different markers are going to get activated just depending on the style of relationship that you're in and the person that you're dating. But the beauty of this research is it shows a clear demarcation between avoidance and anxious, and that avoidance is something that's more heritable and that anxious is something that is more environmentally induced.
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