Reminds me of how ‘pick-up artists’ have that idea of ‘negging’. Normal friendly people really do often flirt by saying negative things to each other, but they’re never things that they think will actually hurt; most of the time they’re not even really true, it’s more likely sarcastic. It also needs to go both ways. Just straight-up insulting someone in the hope they’ll try to prove themselves to you is a very different thing.
Reminds me of how ‘pick-up artists’ have that idea of ‘negging’. Normal friendly people really do often flirt by saying negative things to each other, but they’re never things that they think will actually hurt; most of the time they’re not even really true, it’s more likely sarcastic. It also needs to go both ways. Just straight-up insulting someone in the hope they’ll try to prove themselves to you is a very different thing.