Ghosting in Emerging Adults’ Romantic Relationships: The Digital Dissolution Disappearance Strategy

LeFebvre, Leah E.; Allen, Mike; Rasner, Ryan D.; Garstad, Shelby; Wilms, Aleksander; Parrish, Callie

doi:10.1177/0276236618820519

Cited by 91 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Ghosting occurs through one technological means or many by, for example, not responding to phone calls or text messages, no longer following partners or blocking partners on social network platforms. Ghosting differs from other relationship dissolution strategies insofar as it takes place without the ghosted mate immediately knowing what has happened, who is left to manage and understand what the partner's lack of communication means [8] and is unable to close the relationship [9]. Ghosting prevalence has been examined mostly in US adults.…”

Section: Ghosting and Breadcrumbing: Definition And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical evidence for ghosting behaviors is extremely scarce. Ghosting has been conceptualized by past research, which describes it as a strategy adopted to dissolve undesired relationships without ever having to break them up [9]. Other studies have investigated which factors are associated with ghosting.…”

Section: Ghosting and Breadcrumbing: Definition And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences: A Preliminary Study among Adults

Navarro

Rubio

Jiménez

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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The present study aimed to examine differences in three psychological constructs (satisfaction with life, loneliness, and helplessness) among adults experiencing ghosting and breadcrumbing. A sample of 626 adults (303 males and 323 females), aged from 18 to 40 years, completed an online survey asking to indicate whether someone they considered a dating partner had ghosted or breadcrumbed them in the last year and to complete three different scales regarding satisfaction with life, loneliness, and helplessness. The results showed than those participants who had indicated experiencing breadcrumbing or the combined forms (both breadcrumbing and ghosting) reported less satisfaction with life, and more helplessness and self-perceived loneliness. The results from the regression models showed that suffering breadcrumbing would significantly increase the likelihood of experiencing less satisfaction with life, and of having more feelings of loneliness and helplessness. However, no significant relation was found between ghosting and any of the examined psychological correlates.

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Section: Ghosting and Breadcrumbing: Definition And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ghosting and Breadcrumbing: Definition And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences: A Preliminary Study among Adults

Navarro

Rubio

Jiménez

et al. 2020

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Much of the existing ghosting literature has used qualitative data to provide definitions and preliminary descriptive information of the phenomenon (LeFebvre et al 2019;Koessler et al, 2019) and only one study has been published that uses a theoretical perspective to explain when ghosting is used to dissolve a romantic relationship (Freedman et al, 2018). Freedman et al (2018) investigated the association between implicit theories of relationships and ghosting behaviors, intentions, and perceptions.…”

Section: Ghostingmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Your Boo Becomes a Ghost: The Association Between Breakup Strategy and Breakup Role in Experiences of Relationship Dissolution

Koessler¹,

Kohut²,

Campbell³

2019

Collabra: Psychology

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Ghosting, or avoiding technologically-mediated contact with a partner instead of providing an explanation for a breakup, has emerged as a relatively new breakup strategy in modern romantic relationships. The current study investigated differences in the process of relationship dissolution and post-breakup outcomes as a function of breakup role (disengager or recipient) and breakup strategy (ghosting or direct conversation) using a cross-validation design. A large sample of participants who recently experienced a breakup was collected and randomly split into two halves. Exploratory analyses were conducted in Sample A and used to inform the construction of specific hypotheses which were pre-registered and tested in Sample B. Analyses indicated relationships that ended through ghosting were shorter and characterized by lower commitment than relationships that ended directly. Recipients experienced greater distress and negative affect than disengagers, and ghosting disengagers reported less distress than direct disengagers. Ghosting breakups were characterized by greater use of avoidance/withdrawal and distant/mediated communication breakup tactics and less open confrontation and positive tone/self-blame breakup tactics. Distinct differences between ghosting and direct strategies suggest developments in technology have influenced traditional processes of relationship dissolution.

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“…While we cannot experimentally study the situations described in the vignettes, it is possible that participants would act differently in these situations. For example, despite the fact that many of the participants in this study flatly denied being willing to ghost short-term romantic partners, we know that many young adults do in fact engage in ghosting (Freedman et al, 2019;LeFebvre et al, 2019;Navarro et al, 2020). As such, further investigation of what leads to such passive rejection-and how it may be affected by current mood states-is warranted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Who is more willing to engage in social rejection? The roles of self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, and negative affect in social rejection decisions

Freedman¹,

Dainer-Best²

2020

Preprint

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Although the emotional consequences of social rejection are well-documented, less is known about the emotional antecedents of social rejection decisions. In a set of two preregistered studies, the present research examines the association of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, general distress, and self-esteem with attitudes toward engaging in different types of rejection in the contexts of friendship and romantic relationships. Across both studies, participants experiencing higher levels of general distress and lower levels of self-esteem indicated that engaging in social rejection would be more difficult and would lead to higher levels of negative emotion. However, participants did not differ in their reported willingness to engage in social rejection based on depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, or self-esteem, nor did these markers of negative affect relate to the number of romantic relationships they had ended. Additionally, symptoms did not differentiate between likelihood of explicit rejection or passive rejection (ghosting); participants reported being unwilling to ghost in romantic relationships in both studies. Taken together, the two studies suggest that psychological distress may not result in decreased willingness to reject a friend or partner, but may make the idea of doing so seem more difficult.

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Ghosting in Emerging Adults’ Romantic Relationships: The Digital Dissolution Disappearance Strategy

Cited by 91 publications

References 33 publications

Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences: A Preliminary Study among Adults

Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences: A Preliminary Study among Adults

When Your Boo Becomes a Ghost: The Association Between Breakup Strategy and Breakup Role in Experiences of Relationship Dissolution

Who is more willing to engage in social rejection? The roles of self-esteem, rejection sensitivity, and negative affect in social rejection decisions

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