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“I Guess I’ll Never Know…”: Non-Initiators Account-Making After Being Ghosted

Abstract Ghosting describes a popular contemporary dating disengagement strategy that abruptly ends communication using technological medium(s). For the target of ghosting, the non-initiator, the action usually creates an incomplete account of the loss. This investigation explores the non-initiators’ retroactive rationalization of ghosting as loss. Utilizing Amazon Mechanical Turk, we conducted two studies. In Study I, non-initiators (N = 189) provided reasons for why they were ghosted. Utilizing analytic induction, eight themes emerged from non-initiators accounts. In Study II, (N = 169), the themes were further examined to determine validity. The retrospective rationalizations determine the incoherent account-making processes in post-dissolution from ghosting.