Men are more likely to seek relationship advice online, according to a review of Reddit questions.- The analysis suggests men may be more open about their relationships online due to stigmas around men expressing emotions in person.
A review of the online activity of Redditors seeking relationship advice suggests men are more likely to go online to express their emotional needs and ask for advice than women.
The review, published by researchers at Lancaster University and the University of Zurich, analyzed the Reddit activity of 184,631 people. The findings suggest while women might gravitate towards other outlets for relationship advice, like friends, therapists or experts, men tend to voice their concerns online.
"Contrary to more traditional contexts, men are more likely to seek help with their relationships online, are more expressive of their emotions, and show language patterns generally consistent with more secure attachment," the study read.
According to the data, teenage boys in particular (12-17) were far more likely to ask for advice in subreddit r/relationships than girls their age, with 5,447 submissions by adolescent boys and 1,828 by girls the same age in the sample data.
The researchers suggest that men may gravitate more towards online forums to express their feelings due to the stigma tied to men sharing their emotions face-to-face.
"This discrepancy in findings supports our notion that men may find anonymous, online relationship help settings preferable to in-person contexts, likely due to stigma attached to help-seeking behavior in men," the researchers said.
Men tend to be less emotionally avoidant online, the analysis suggests
In addition to seeking help, researchers say men may exhibit behavior more closely associated with a secure
Insider previously reported attachments style theory refers to how a person relates and deals with conflict in a relationship.
Previous studies have suggested, in real life, men gravitate towards a dismissive avoidant attachment style, meaning they are more likely to be avoidant of problems and have a hard time forming deep attachments with partners, but that may not be the case on platforms like Reddit.
"While several explanations for such patterns are possible, we suggest that modern, online help-seeking platforms may allow men to behave in ways that contradict the dismissive stereotype, again highlighting the powerful role of stereotypes in in-person relationship help-seeking behavior," the review reads.