Relationship placebo

During several discussions on dating and relationships over the past few weeks, I've come to coin a new term for something guys have been doing for some time now, which I like to call Relationship Placebo.

A relationship placebo is something guys pass on to the people they're seeing to make them think they're getting into a relationship without giving them the actual, meaningful signs. The person thinks they're getting the medicine when you realize you're only giving them a sugar pill.

Some examples:

• The guy you're seeing give you a nickname (one of the key elements in relationship building), but instead of using term with any real affection such as "darling," "honey" or "sweetie," he calls you "buddy," "kid-o" or "dude"
  
• He wants to bring you to a party (which is something that reinforces the concept of "togetherness"), but instead of taking you to something of meaning such as his best-friend's birthday, he he brings you to a party where he himself only knows one or two people

When you turn around and analyze, it's a Keyser Soze moment, where you realize through all of these gestures, he hasn't given you anything of substance to go on.