Relationship dissolution strategies: Comparing the psychological consequences of ghosting, orbiting, and rejection

Abstract

Ghosting and orbiting occur when a relationship is ended unilaterally by suddenly withdrawing from all communication and without explanation. However, in orbiting, the disengager still follows the victims on social networking sites after the breakup. With the advent of the digital era, these practices have become increasingly common, gaining attention from psychology research. Within the theoretical framework of social exclusion, the present study (N = 176) investigated victims’ consequences of ghosting and orbiting, considering the two breakup strategies as instances of ostracism. Participants were invited to fill an online survey and randomly assigned to recall an episode of ghosting, orbiting, or rejection. Following the recall task, participants completed a series of questionnaires to measure the typical outcomes threatened by ostracism (i.e., emotions, basic psychological needs, breakup’s cognitive evaluation, and aggressive inclinations). The results showed a consistent pattern across most of the constructs measured. Specifically, ghosting led to worse outcomes than rejection, whereas the disengagers’ ambiguous signals characterizing orbiting seemed to buffer the victims partially from the consequences of relationship dissolution. Results are discussed in the light of social exclusion literature, adding to the growing research on ghosting.

From Close to Ghost: Examining the Relationship Between the Need for Closure, Intentions to Ghost, and Reactions to Being Ghosted

“…As we predicted, results from Study 3 show that being ghosted threatens basic psychological needs more than being included and directly rejected. These results are in line with previous research suggesting that the experience of being ghosted is harmful to well-being, even more so than direct rejection (Pancani et al, 2021, 2022; Timmermans et al, 2021).…”

“…Compared to ghosting initiators , targets of ghosting reported lower belongingness, self-esteem, meaningful existence, and control (Freedman, Powell, et al, 2022). Additionally, when compared to targets of direct rejection , targets of ghosting reported lower satisfaction of their belonging and control needs, although there was no difference in self-esteem and meaningful existence (Pancani et al, 2022). Thus, we predict that targets of ghosting would experience lower psychological needs satisfaction than targets of direct rejection.…”

“…Further, qualitative evidence suggests that targets of ghosting (vs. direct rejection) experienced greater surprise, confusion, guilt, and sadness (Pancani et al, 2021). Quantitative evidence suggests that ghosting targets felt more excluded, and they perceived the breakup as less expected and fair (Pancani et al, 2022).…”

Exploring social exclusion: Where we are and where We're going

“…Further, one can be unfollowed or unfriended on social media platforms or even refused social connection requests to begin with, typically with no explanation provided to the receiver. This phenomenon has been labeled ghosting and increasingly has become a way of ending social relationships, especially for individuals who may have relationship attachment issues (Freedman et al., 2019; Lutz & Schneider, 2021; Pancani et al., 2022; Powell et al., 2021). A related phenomenon, orbiting , involves someone refusing direct communication with another person yet remaining connected with them (e.g., “following them”) on a social media platform.…”

“…These studies provide promising areas of future exclusion research, such as focusing on how these specific social media‐based exclusion experiences compare. Some data suggest that ghosting may be worse than direct rejection via social media, but orbiting may be somewhere between the two in terms of harm given its ambiguous nature—a form of partial exclusion (Pancani et al., 2022). Other research suggests that a lack of being tagged in a photo post is less painful than actively being removed from a photo post (Büttner & Rudert, 2022).…”