The affordances of mobile dating apps as a driving force behind ghosting behavior
Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Inme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 707404. The opinions expressed in this document reflect only the authors’ view. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
Blame toward self (ghostee)
Open research statement As part of IARR’s encouragement of open research practices, the authors have provided the following information: This research was not pre-registered because of its exploratory nature. The data used in the research are not available, but will be made available after publication in the university’s data repository.
Affordances of the app
A fairly large proportion of the sample (n = 94; 44%) also noted that the ghosting experience has had long-term effects on their mental health. Respondents mentioned lowered self-esteem (n = 89), distrust in others/the world (n = 20), and, for a small minority, even depression and panic attacks (n = 3). Such findings support the assumption that having experienced ghosting can indeed have detrimental effects on one’s well-being, 
as clearly illustrated by Esther’s (31, heterosexual) experience: “We would text each other daily, from morning ‘til evening and decided after a week to go on a date. The date was lovely, we laughed a lot. He brought me home and we even kissed in the car because it felt so good. After the date he texted that he really liked it and I answered I felt the same way. The next day I did not receive the usual ‘good morning’ message, he would also not text me during the day. Yet, I noticed on another app that he was online during that day. (suite…)