Many social ties end when one side rejects the other, but rejection does not need to happen directly. Ghosting-the act of ending a relationship by ignoring another person's attempts to connect-is a common way of ending social ties. The present experiments first establish the key characteristics of ghosting and distinguish it from other rejection behaviors (Pilot Studies 1a-1c). The experiments then proceed to explore the relational and motivational implications of this behavior, finding that ghosters (those who ghost) care about the well-being of ghostees (those who are ghosted) more than ghostees realize. This result occurs in recalled instances of ghosting (Experiment 1), when ghosting in real time (Experiment 2), and when refraining from ghosting is monetarily costly (Experiment 3). We find that this occurs partly because ghostees underestimate the other-oriented motives involved in ghosting, misunderstanding that ghosters ghost partly as a way to end a tie while avoiding hurting ghostees' feelings (Experiments 4-6). Indeed, greater other-oriented motives lead to a higher likelihood of ghosting others (Experiment 7). A final experiment finds relational consequences whereby ghostees miss out on opportunities for future help exchange due to their underestimation of the extent to which ghosters care about them (Experiment 8). Ghosting is social rejection without explanation or feedback, but not without care. This study highlights how prosocial motives can drive rejection behaviors and the role of interpersonal accuracy in mitigating the negative effects of social rejection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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重影：没有解释的社会拒绝，但并非没有关心。


许多社会关系在一方拒绝另一方时就结束了，但拒绝并不需要直接发生。重影——通过忽视他人的联系尝试来结束关系的行为——是结束社会关系的常见方式。本实验首先确定了重影的关键特征，并将其与其他拒绝行为区分开来（试点研究 1a-1c）。然后，实验继续探索这种行为的关系和动机含义，发现幽灵者（那些幽灵的人）比幽灵者意识到的更关心幽灵者（那些被幽灵的人）的福祉。此结果出现在回忆的重影实例中（实验 1）、实时重影时（实验 2）以及避免重影的经济成本较高时（实验 3）。我们发现，出现这种情况的部分原因是幽灵者低估了幽灵者的以他人为导向的动机，误解了幽灵者的幽灵部分是为了结束平局，同时避免伤害幽灵者的感情（实验4-6）。事实上，更大的以他人为导向的动机导致鬼影他人的可能性更高（实验 7）。最后一个实验发现了相关后果，即幽灵者由于低估了幽灵者对他们的关心程度而错过了未来帮助交换的机会（实验 8）。重影是一种没有解释或反馈的社会拒绝，但并非没有关心。这项研究强调了亲社会动机如何驱动拒绝行为以及人际准确性在减轻社会拒绝的负面影响中的作用。 （PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。