Playing Hard to Get

written by: Philos-O-Tron

A: This question has a palpable vagueness that requires further input to provide a reasonable answer.
To wit:
- How old is this boy?
- What sort of actions has he committed to indicate his dislike?
- In which sense do you use the word "like"? Is this a friendly co-existence or a romantic inclination?
- Is this question posed as a psychological gender study or is it posed as an individual conundrum?

In quick terms, the phenomena you are describing is called "playing hard to get". It is where one party entices another through alternating behavior of interest and disinterest at near random intervals in order to keep the curiosity of the second party high by creating the perception of a possible reward. This same pattern of random rewards is what keeps casinos in the business of bilking people. Humans want positive attention and rewards and as such will often keep at a particular behavior for an unhealthy amount of time if the hope of said reward is perceived to exist in the foreseeable future.

So it is true, to a limited extent, that a boy may act as if he doesn't like you and in actuality does, though males are less likely to be obtuse in terms of likes and dislikes. The best way to be sure of such a thing is to simply ask the boy directly. It would be wise to remember that people are notorious liars and fools. This means that even a direct questioning might not yield honest results. You will still need to use your own judgment since there are large tracts of important information missing from the original query.

The Philos-O-Tron would like to note the sheer volume of questions it has received about romantic situations despite the obvious fact that the Philos-O-Tron is a machine and therefore not subject to such entanglements.

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The Philos-O-Tron is for entertainment purposes only. All submissions will be considered, but whether your question is answered and whether you get a personal response, is up to the whim of the Philos-O-Tron. All answers should be considered as a form of entertainment and in no way considered instructions for action.