The Reason Some People Are More Likely To “Ghost” in Relationships

Ghosting — when you or someone you’ve been talking to or dating stops answering texts or calls or emails without any explanation — is something most of us are familiar with. It turns out some people are more likely to disappear than others, and one researcher has found out why…

Gili Freedman, a postdoc at Dartmouth college in New Hampshire recruited over 500 men and women to fill in questionnaires about their love lives — particularly whether they believed in destiny and whether they had ever ghosted someone or been ghosted themselves. The results:

“Volunteers with strong beliefs in destiny were more likely to think it was OK to end a relationship by ghosting, compared to those with weaker beliefs in destiny: 22% more likely in the case of a short-term relationship; 63% more likely in the case of a long-term relationship. Stronger believers in destiny were 24% less likely to think poorly of a ghoster and 43% more likely to consider ghosting.”

Freedman argues that the results are consistent with the possibility that people who believe in destiny, or the idea of “soul-mates,” may think a more abrupt ending to a relationship is appropriate. Because, like, if you don’t think the person is “the one,” why bother putting any more effort — even the effort of common courtesy — into it, right? Ugh, minus one for my faith in humanity.