The researchers conducted two sets of surveys, four months apart, on young adults aged between 16 and 21, with a total of 978 taking part in the first and 415 completing the second. Participants were asked about how often they had ghosted dates and friends, but the questions didn’t use the word ‘ghosting’. Instead, they referred to similar behaviours, like cutting off contact online without telling them why.

The participants also rated how overwhelmed they felt by social media communications and their self-esteem and depressive tendencies.

The results showed some major differences between ghosting romantic prospects and ghosting our friends, both in terms of the causes and the potential after-effects.

They found that a bombardment of communication tended to predict romantic ghosting, but the same thing didn’t happen with friendships. Meanwhile, respondents who reported greater self-esteem were more likely to ghost their friends but not their dates. “As one’s number of friends typically surpasses the number of current romantic partners, it may be easier for individuals with high self-esteem… to ghost friends they do not want to stay in contact with and turn to others compared to people with low self-esteem,” the researchers wrote.

Ghosting your friends can impact your mental health, according to this study