Now You See Me, Now You Don’t: Exploring the Relationship Between Ghosting, Personality Traits, Attachment, and Adverse Childhood Experiences

Abstract

Ghosting is a colloquial term that emerged in the 2000s. Since its emergence, it has gained popularity across social media platforms to describe the phenomenon of ending a romantic relationship or relationship interest by ceasing communication and withholding an explanation for terminating the relationship. Ghosting is similar to other indirect relationship termination strategies; however, it is uniquely mediated by technology and does not necessitate a confirmed relationship status. Whereas interpersonal issues in the relationship and contextual factors that affect the relationship are common reasons for ghosting, little empirical research has addressed the dispositions, personality traits, or adverse childhood experiences associated with ghosting. This study explores connections between ghosting phenomena and attachment orientations, the dark tetrad of personality traits, implicit theories of relationships, and the frequency and severity of adverse experiences in childhood for understanding ghosting behavior and reactions to being ghosted. Results indicate that childhood experiences, personality traits, and beliefs about relationships are associated with a person’s experience with ghosting, behavior in ghosting contexts, and role as a ghoster or ghostee in a ghosting interaction. The study shows that it will be worthwhile in future studies and clinical applications to consider individual differences in dealing with online relationship breakups.