PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — “Ghosting,” a term that plagues the dating scene even outside of spooky season, has become much more common in recent years. But according to a Forbes survey, Oregon is the state where the phenomenon is least likely to happen.
Ghosting occurs when someone ends a relationship by stopping communication with the other person instead of directly telling them that it’s over.
When Forbes Health polled about 5,000 Americans who have actively dated within the past five years, 76% of the respondents answered that they had either “ghosted” a romantic interest or had been ghosted by one.
Although the percentage of ghosting victims — and perpetrators — remains high across the U.S., there are some states where it isn’t as common.
Forbes said Oregon was the No. 1 state with the lowest instances of ghosting, with just 27% of Oregon respondents saying they’d been on either side of the phenomena.
Oregon was followed by Hawaii, Michigan, California and Idaho.
Washington was below the national average as well, with 70% of respondents saying they had ghosted someone or been ghosted.
However, most participants across the U.S. said they’d only done it to someone they spoke to on a dating app but hadn’t met in person. Over half of the pollsters said they’d ghosted someone that they’d been on just one in-person date with, while 39% of pollsters said it happened after going on multiple dates.
According to Forbes Health, the most popular reason for ghosting is not having the same expectations for the relationship.
The website also revealed which reasons for ghosting were more common for male respondents versus female respondents.
“The largest disparity in responses between males and females as to why they ghosted someone, though, was that they felt the other person wasn’t interested, with about 20% of females and almost 29% of males stating this as their rationale for ghosting the other person,” Forbes said.
The states where people are most likely to get ghosted are Rhode Island, North Dakota, Wyoming, Illinois and Ohio.
