Men who end relationships by ‘ghosting’ — suddenly cutting off all communication — tend to have the dark personality traits of narcissism and psychopathy, a new study has found.
Researchers from the University of Padua surveyed 341 US adults about ghosting and tested their personality traits.
They found that 51 per cent of participants reported having ghosted someone to end a past relationship.
These people were more likely to exhibit Machiavellian and psychopathic traits — but not narcissistic ones.
‘Ghosting may be primarily committed by people who are interested in casual sex where investment is low, and this behaviour may be linked to the dark triad traits,’ said Professor Peter Jonason, who led the study.
Men who end relationships by ‘ghosting’ — suddenly cutting off all communication — tend to have the dark personality traits of psychopathy and Machiavellianism
The ‘dark triad’ is the name given to the three malevolent personality traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy.
For their study, the team recruited 341 US adults — 23 per cent of whom were men — and asked them whether they felt that ghosting was an acceptable way to end either short- or long-term relationships, as well as if they had ever ghosted someone in the past.
Alongside this, each participant was asked to complete a personality survey in which dark triad traits were assessed.
For example, subjects were asked to express how much they agreed with the statements ‘It’s not wise to tell your secrets’ (relating to Machiavellianism), ‘People see me as a natural leader’ (narcissism) and ‘Payback needs to be quick and nasty’ (psychopathy).
The results showed that that 51 per cent of the participants reported having ghosted someone to end a past relationship.
These people were more likely to report thinking that ghosting was acceptable and more likely to exhibit Machiavellian and psychopathic traits — but not narcissistic ones.
‘That would be consistent with the finding that the association of low affective empathy with Machiavellianism and psychopathy is stronger than its association with narcissism and that narcissism is linked to some empathy skills,’ the team wrote.
‘The results seem to confirm that narcissistic people’s repertoire may include a greater degree of understanding the pain of others to better get what they want from them as part of the relationship instead of ending it.’
Furthermore, subjects who scored higher in the dark triad personality traits tended to rate ghosting as being more acceptable as a way to end short-term relationships, but not more serious commitments.
According to the researchers, the associations between harbouring dark personality traits and considering ghosting to be acceptable were stronger among narcissistic men than women.
According to Professor Jonason, ghosting ‘is when a person abruptly socially disengages with someone they are romantically/sexually involved with little-to-no explanation’
A similar, but less pronounced, gender effect was also seen among those participants who tested with psychopathic traits.
‘Ghosting may be a way that people, men in particular, high on psychopathy and narcissism (i.e., with their fast mating strategies) may engage in ghosting as an efficient low cost way of divesting themselves of casual sex partners, the team said.
This, they explained, frees these men up ‘to either pursue other opportunities or simply to avoid getting in unwanted commitments.’
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Acta Psychologica.
WOULD YOU KNOW HOW TO SPOT A PSYCHOPATH?
Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder.
Common signs include superficial charm, a grandiose notion of self-worth, the need for stimulation and impulsiveness, pathological lying, the ability to manipulate others and a lack of remorse and empathy.
But despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become killers.
Experts claim people usually find psychopaths intriguing, but can’t put their finger on why.
This is down to incongruous behaviour because psychopaths tend to do a lot of acting to deceive, or mimic normal reactions, sometimes changing their views and reactions quickly.
For example, Self-professed psychopath Jacob Wells said that upon meeting someone, he tries to become ‘the most interesting person they know’ and presumably adopts suitable interests and responses to do this.
His response also gives away another common trait – a grandiose notion of self-worth – in that he can be the most interesting person in the room.
Psychopaths occasionally tend to exhibit unconvincing emotional responses, with slip-ups including tone of voice or body language.
This may be because they are unable to understand emotions such as fear and love, but can mimic them.
Psychopaths display different traits depending on their disorder, but common signs include superficial charm and the ability to manipulate others. Despite the popular association, not all psychopaths become killers (stock image)
Generally psychopaths’ ’emotions’ are shallow and short-lived and there is a manipulative ulterior motive to showing them.
For example, Mr Wells said he offers to do favours and tells false secrets to people to gain their complete trust.
He also displays insincere charm – another trait associated with psychopaths.
He says: ‘I keep secrets, and tell them fake secrets to further gain their trust, and once they trust me enough, I ask for favours, reminding them of the favours I did them. I can get literally anything from them, which is incredibly useful.’
Psychopaths typically display an incredible ability to manipulate others and sometimes take pleasure in doing so.
Psychopaths often have an air of superiority about them, perhaps shown by Mr Wells’ belief he can spot other psychopaths
Even expert Dr Hare, who came up with the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) used as a diagnostic tool to determine where someone lies on the psychopathy spectrum, warns that anyone can be duped during a short interaction with a psychopath.
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