Rejecting Unwanted Romantic Advances Is More Difficult Than Suitors Realize (2018)

Discussion with the paper's author: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/26/809530189/hidden-brain-how-eg...

Excerpt, regarding a person who asks a coworker on a date:

> And what we found is that people who ask somebody out at work and were rejected thought that it was pretty easy for that person to reject them, right? They didn't think that that person experienced a whole lot of distress. And they didn't think that they changed their behavior very much after being asked out.

> When people recalled situations where they were asked out by someone at work who they weren't interested in, they described feeling obligated to say yes and feeling much more uncomfortable saying no to the person. And they reported doing all sorts of things to try to avoid that person that the other person didn't realize that they were doing.

> So in fact, this little request, you know, we tell people to just go for it and ask this person out. It actually puts a lot more pressure on the other person than we tend to realize when we're the ones doing the asking.

Well I'm still obligated to make those advances if I intend to ever have another romantic relationship so this information isn't very useful