Overheard recently in my hood:

“So, he was, like, what’s your favorite number? And I was like, 22 and he said, oh my God, that’s my favorite number, too!”

Wow, it must be true love. The same favorite number and everything. Time to move in together perhaps? Not quite.

I’m sorry to diss the speaker in question, but as she was referring to some random guy that she met in a bar, I have to say that she was pretty gullible as he was definitely lying to her. Did she really believe that the guy’s favorite number was 22? She must have or she wouldn’t have felt it necessary to report the amazing coincidence in such detail to her friend. And, in case you are wondering, a bit curious, or are just bored, the speaker in question wasn’t a teenager, but an attractive 20-something-year-old professional woman who probably should have known better.

Master-schmoozers and pick-up artists like the guy in question have nothing to lose and everything to gain by pretending to have things in common with girls and women.  This is not a sophisticated pick-up technique at all. Whatever the girl or woman says, all the guy has to say is something along the lines of. “Me, too!”

In sales jargon, the technique is called, “Mirroring” and is used to put the other person (whether the person is an unsuspecting customer or a sexy girl at the bar) at ease. As a salesperson in my younger years, it was one of the first techniques I was taught. We weren’t exactly told to lie, but stretching the truth was strongly encouraged.

The use of “Mirroring” doesn’t necessarily make the guy a lech or pervert, but lying is not really the best way to start off a relationship or fling. If I talk to a guy using sleazy pick-ups or pretending to have things in common with me that he doesn’t, I have the same kind of feeling.  Although some of the guys aren’t that bad, a few of them are the same types of guys who would lie about a condom breaking or about having condoms at home already.

Of course, women could turn the tables on the men and use the same technique by pretending to like everything they do. Of course, if you want more than a quick fling, I wouldn’t advise anyone to actually try it.