As long as you're not overtly insulting them it's entertainment. It's a lightweight dominance engagement(drama) with playfulness, as opposed to a heavier, nastier shit-test or rejection that may escalate.

Think of wrasslin' with a five year-old child, but understand that both sides think that the other is the five year-old.

I heard a theory that it's because they're used to having guys kowtowing to them, which they perceive as fake. Teasing seems like you're "keeping it real" or whatever the kids say. If you've ever known a girl who had a gay best friend, watch how he talks to her.

If you prefer an evolutionary psychology explanation, it actually takes quite a bit of social competence to tease a girl without outright insulting her. For a social animal like humans, that skill is most certainly useful elsewhere in life, which means there is selective advantage to it, which means it's probably attractive to the sex that does the selecting.

Because in most of their interactions with men, the men are super nice, agree with everything they say, and try really hard not to piss them off thinking it will get them laid. Women see right through this. The men are basically signaling "your approval is very important to me", which women see as pathetically weak.

Now, along comes a guy who playfully teases them. He stands out from the sea of loser men, since men barely ever talk to her like that. On top of that, being able to effectively tease a woman is a display of social intelligence, which women find attractive. The guy is basically signaling "I don't need your approval, because I know I can get a woman with a similar or higher mate value than you."

Notice I say EFFECTIVELY teasing. You can try and tease a girl and come off as completely incongruent, socially. Have you ever read a woman on Reddit saying "some guy tried to neg me and I saw right through it. Stupid PUA."? Well that just means he sucks at teasing.

I'd chalk it up to mostly just being different. Most guys supplicate, compliment, blah blah. She's heard it all. "Nice eyes", "you're beautiful".

It is proof that he has his own mind and don't give a fuck.

If he can neg on her, he can neg others too, and get his way.

Shows his value. This is attractive.

what is it about teasing?

Not being a boring cunt.

Some of the analysis in here is over the top, I wouldn't overthink it too much. It is true, but have fun with it.

I would say that besides teasing, exclusion is a really good way to dominate a girl. For example I went up to a girl I knew talking to a girl I did not know (she was hotter). For some random reason, I fired this one off "Hey, we should go rob a bank later after we finish these drinks".

Of course they were all in to that concept, so I asked them if they could handle guns and defend themselves..could they look a man in the eyes and kill him in cold blood?..just stupid stuff. Anyway, I told the girl I didn't know "hey listen, I don't know you and I haven't seen how you handle pressure. I'm afraid you can't come".

This was all me just being silly and acting like an idiot, but damn if that girl didn't tell me multiple times that night that she wanted in and was qualifying herself over and over. It was a running joke I made that is in line with this thread.

So don't just tease - pretend to exclude them from things that are exciting.

I was working as a volunteer at a race and a girl asked, generally to the group, "are they going to feed us?"

"Well, if you walk over there," I pointed to the vendor stands, "you can bring me back a sandwich and then I can think of a plan for the rest of us." (TEASE 1)

She just looked at me up and down and gave some IOI with her hair play. "A sandwich? I need some meat."

"Well if I get some meat in you, I'm definitely going to need a sandwich afterwards." She clearly blushed at that one. "But something's going to have to be done about that terrible haircut." (TEASE 2)

She swatted at me (kino) and giggled and then made effort to stand inside my personal bubble until the guy assigned our tasks. Unfortunately I never saw her afterwards.

It's not just teasing, but the context of that teasing.

If I just came out and said, "Your hair cut is terrible" she'd take that as an outright insult. However, coupled with the line about getting her some meat, she takes the innuendo and entendre from that and applies it to my teasing. Now it's playful.

The first example involved a smirk and some facial and body language that clearly says I'm joking. In this case, the body language serves as context.

To compound /u/nicethingyoucanthave 's explanation: it has everything to do with social cues and demonstrates your ability to communicate in complex ways.

Of course... she has to find you attractive to begin with. In my above experience, that girl was already showing some eye-contact IOI and had made a joke about me "stealing" a water from the pallet. That was my opening to escalate the conversation.

2 obvious negs I gave my current fiancée when we were still in the dating phase.

1. We were in my room hanging out and relaxing. I was doing something on my computer and she leans close to my face and says "tell me I'm pretty", in a mocking tone i say "look at me, look at me, tell me I'm pretty" she gasps and laughs at the tease. I didn't insult her, I wasn't condescending. I just make fun of something she was legitimately doing.

2. We were outside walking somewhere and it was pretty warm out. She starts complaining that her feet hurt and she is tired and wants to go home and take a shower. I look at her and start whimpering like a puppy for a sold 15-20 seconds, and she looks at me like I've gone crazy. Then in a dead-pan voice I say "that's all I hear," again she laughs at the joke and she know she was guilty of whining and just adored me.

She liked that I called her out on her BS and didn't just roll over for her, she even said as much in a few different conversations with her. She loves it, the key is that I don't insult her or treat her like an idiot. I just call out her nonsense.

This is a skill I learned from TRP.

I mean, people in general are attracted to playful, witty people. I mean, I find that with guys (and actually girls too), the few up them that I enjoy hanging out with are the ones with good banter. Novel, fun, charismatic people have the world at their fingertips.

People go on autopilot throughout the day. They just hit cruise and go through their routine. With women that are used to getting lots of attention, they do this through hordes of men that want them.

But women still crave attention from the highest value males. And a bump in the road can make them turn off cruise control and evaluate, "does this mean I've arrived??" This can either make them very happy, or homicidally mad, depending on your SMV.

The end goal of a woman in life is to be aroused.