GHOSTING: A FORM OF OSTRACISM

With the advancement of social media platforms such as Tinder and Match.com, ostracism has become a much more prevalent occurrence. Such platforms allow cyber-ostracism to occur, creating the term Millennials coined, “ghosting.” Ghosting is the practice of suddenly ending all contact with a person without giving an explanation or warning. In this study, 82 participants completed an online survey. The questionnaire was broken up into two sections, the ghoster questionnaire and the ghostee questionnaire. The first section was the ghoster questionnaire which asked participants about their ghosting habits. The second section was the ghostee questionnaire which asked participants about their experiences of being ghosted. The ghoster questionnaire consisted of questions aiming to see why people ghost other people. The ghostee questionnaire consisted of questions aiming to see how people felt after being ghosted. The purpose of this study is to investigate why people ghost. This study will also examine whether ghosting is more prevalent or hurtful on dating apps compared to websites. After the dating sites were broken down into app or website-based dating site the results somewhat supported the hypothesis. Participants in the ghostee section using an app-based dating site reported feeling more upset after being ghosted than ghostee participants using a website-based dating site. Participants in both the ghoster and ghostee conditions reported mostly using these sites to find a relationship. The results of this study suggest that a person is more likely to ghost and be ghosted if they are trying to find a relationship on these sites than if they are not looking for a relationship.