Why We Are Drawn To Toxic Relationships

You make eye-contact with someone from across the room at a party and you’re instantly drawn to them. But why is it that you can be on a date with someone else and you cannot get away from them soon enough? 

Listen to the full episode below:

On today’s briefing, we continue our conversation on the social science behind human relationships with Dr Ali Walker, a human connection scientist and mediator with a PhD in group dynamics from the Australian National University. She explains why some people can end up in toxic relationships. 

We are still more likely to be drawn to the person who matches our connection needs who’s an F word, then we are going to be drawn to the person who doesn’t match our connection needs who’s lovely,”

Dr Walker said.

Walker also discusses how we pursue friendships differently to intimate partnerships.  

The intuitive click is the friendship or coworker you get along with. For the intimate clicks, you don’t actually want the same connection type in your intimate partner that leads to some volatility,”

Dr Walker said.

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