When silence speaks louder than words: Exploring the experiences and attitudes of ghosters

Abstract

Ghosting has become commonplace beyond romantic relationships. Therefore, we aimed to broadly understand ghosters' (i.e., people who ghost others) experiences including the process of ghosting, reasons and attributions for ghosting, feelings and behaviors associated with ghosting, and attitudes toward ghosting. Thirty‐four undergraduates (65% Latinx, 15% Asian, 12% Black, 8% Other ethnicity) who had ghosted another person were interviewed in‐person about their ghosting attitudes, ghosting behaviors, and a memorable ghosting experience. Inductive thematic analyses informed by grounded theory yielded eight themes: A Clear Cause, Avoidance of Confrontation, Short‐term Orientation, Ghostees as Socially Inferior, Ignoring then Blocking, Attempts by Ghostee to Reach Out, Mixed and Evolving Feelings, and Recognition of Harm. Our findings indicate that psychological consequences for ghosters should be further examined.

Ignorance is not always bliss: A qualitative study of young adults' experiences with being ghosted

“…This research is part of a larger study on the experiences of ghosters and ghostees; therefore, the procedure, analyses, and positionality are also reported elsewhere (Wu & Bamishigbin, 2023).…”

“…In a study of mobile daters (Timmermans et al, 2021), one-third of ghostees blamed themselves, believing that they were not good enough for the ghoster or that they did something to warrant being ghosted. People also believe that ghostees are socially inferior (Wu & Bamishigbin, 2023) and possess negative traits, such as being unable to accept rejection (Timmermans et al, 2021), lacking boundaries (Yap et al, 2021), being annoying (Yap et al, 2021), being "toxic" (Yap et al, 2021), being dangerous (e.g., LeFebvre et al, 2019Thomas & Dubar, 2021). In an experiment using hypothetical scenarios (Freedman, Hales, et al, 2022), participants were more likely to ghost a romantic partner when their safety was threatened.…”