What makes a ghoster?

Abstract

Ghosting is an emerging area of research in relationships and social psychology. The present study aims to add to the limited literature on when and why people use ghosting to end relationships. Participants were presented with various scenarios in which they sought to end a relationship to measure their willingness to ghost. Participants were also assessed for their standing on measures of the Dark Triad and Love Styles. The scenarios were analyzed by a series of double-repeated ANOVAs to test whether willingness to ghost decreased as commitment and time spent in the relationship increased. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions served to identify those Dark Triad traits, Love Styles, genders, and interactions between these variables predicted ghosting. Willingness to ghost decreased as commitment and amount of time spent in the relationship increased, consistent with the previous literature on ghosting initiation. However, no associations between the Dark Triad traits and willingness to ghost were found, inconsistent with previous literature. There was also no support for the previous finding that men who scored high in narcissism are more likely than women to ghost. Correlations were found between Ludus and Storge Love Styles and ghosting, and interactions with gender showed previously unidentified predictors of ghosting. This study illustrates gendered differences in ghosting initiation not found in previous research and furthers understanding of how personality can affect relationship dissolution strategies.