Considerable research has examined how people feel when interpersonally rejected. Less attention has been paid to the rejectors, especially on how they reject. Rejection methods can range from direct (i.e., informing the target) to indirect (i.e., ghosting), and the method and motives regarding rejection strategies are important because rejected targets often react negatively to rejection, sometimes even violently. It is imperative, therefore, to understand why people reject the way they do, especially when their rejections may yield unexpected negative consequences. A key factor that may influence rejection method decisions, particularly in the context of romantic rejections, is the gender of the target. Drawing on prior research indicating that men are perceived as more dangerous, in this registered report we hypothesized that bisexual individuals may be more likely to endorse ghosting if the target is a man, especially when safety concerns are made salient. A pilot study supported this hypothesis in a sample of mostly heterosexual individuals. The main study tested this hypothesis in a sample of bisexual individuals in order to manipulate target gender as a within-subjects variable and to better understand romantic rejection processes in an understudied sample. Overall, we found that safety concerns may make individuals more likely to engage in ghosting, but how that decision interacts with target gender was less clear.

大量研究调查了人们在被人际拒绝时的感受。对拒绝者的关注较少，尤其是关于如何他们拒绝。拒绝方法的范围从直接（即通知目标）到间接（即重影），拒绝策略的方法和动机很重要，因为被拒绝的目标通常会对拒绝做出负面反应，有时甚至是激烈的反应。因此，必须了解人们为什么拒绝他们的方式，尤其是当他们的拒绝可能会产生意想不到的负面后果时。可能影响拒绝方法决定的一个关键因素，特别是在浪漫拒绝的情况下，是目标的性别。利用先前的研究表明男性被认为更危险，在这份注册报告中，我们假设如果目标是男性，双性恋者可能更有可能支持重影，尤其是在安全问题突出的情况下。一项初步研究在一个主要是异性恋个体的样本中支持了这一假设。主要研究在双性恋个体样本中测试了这一假设，以便将目标性别作为受试者内部变量来操纵，并更好地了解未充分研究的样本中的浪漫拒绝过程。总体而言，我们发现安全问题可能使个人更有可能参与重影，但该决定如何与目标性别相互作用尚不清楚。