Negging ("to neg", meaning "negative feedback") is an act of emotional manipulation whereby a person makes a deliberate backhanded compliment or otherwise flirtatious remark to another person to undermine their confidence and attempt to engender in them a need for the manipulator's approval.
"[3] Neil Strauss, in his book Rules of the Game, also stresses that the primary point of the technique is not to put women down but for a man to disqualify himself as a potential suitor.
On this account he refers to negs as "disqualifiers", although the technique described in the book is recognisably the same as von Markovik's.
Strauss is equally clear that negs should not be used as insults: "a disqualifier should never be hostile, critical, judgmental, or condescending.
[6][7][8] The opposite of negging is pozzing, whereby one pays a person a compliment in order to gain their affection.