Episode 49: Ghosting – Vanishing with a Digital Trace

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• This episode was edited by TJ Timusk.

In this episode, Steve leads the charge on the concept of Ghosting. Steve did the academic research, Phil did the field research, we could say. They talk about who is likely to ghost, who is likely to experience ghosting, and what the effects and strategies could be for avoiding them.

Definitions:

An empirical, accessible definition of “ghosting” as a relationship dissolution method – 2022 – Kay and Courtice

Ghosting: “Ghosting is when one person suddenly ignores or stops communicating with another person, without telling them why.”

Ghosting in Emerging Adults’ Romantic Relationships: The Digital Dissolution Disappearance Strategy 2019 – LeFebvre et al.

Ghosting: Unilaterally ceasing communication (temporarily or permanently) in an effort to withdraw access to individual(s) prompting relationship dissolution (suddenly or gradually) commonly enacted via one or multiple technological medium(s).

References

• Transhumanism: a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition.
• Episode 3: Fixed vs Growth Mindsets
• Attachment Styles (Attachment Theory): a psychological, evolutionary and ethological theory concerning relationships between humans. The most important tenet is that young children need to develop a relationship with at least one primary caregiver for normal social and emotional development
• The Dark Triad (Psychology): describes three notably offensive, but non-pathological personality types: Machiavellianism, sub-clinical narcissism, and sub-clinical psychopathy
• Likert Scale: a psychometric scale commonly involved in research that employs questionnaires. It is the most widely used approach to scaling responses in survey research, such that the term (or more fully the Likert-type scale) is often used interchangeably with rating scale, although there are other types of rating scales.
• Episode 10: Actor-Observer Bias
• Confabulation: a memory error defined as the production of fabricated, distorted, or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the world.
• Elaboration Likelihood Model: The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change. The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.
• Research Papers:
  • Ghosting and destiny: Implicit theories of relationships predict beliefs about ghosting – 2019 – Freedman et al.
  • Individual, interpersonal and relationship factors associated with ghosting intention and behaviors in adult relationships – 2021 – Navarro et al. 
  • A multi-study examination of attachment and implicit theories of relationships in ghosting experiences – 2021 – Powell et al. 
  • Psychological Correlates of Ghosting and Breadcrumbing Experiences – 2020 – Navarro et al.
  • Leaving without a word: Ghosting and the Dark Triad traits – 2021 – Jonason et al.
  • From Best Friends to Silent Ends: Exploring the Concepts of Ghosting in Non-Romantic Relationships 2021 – Yap et al.
  • Gone with the wind: Exploring mobile daters’ ghosting experiences* 2021 – Timmermans et al.