The “Pick Up Artist” (PUA) community of the early aughts teetered on the bleeding edge of psychosexual observation. Among the great many terms PUAs contributed to the lexicon — negging, red pill (as a verb), frame — their crowning achievement was, in my view, the formal recognition of the “s**t test.”
What is a s**t test?
“A manufactured grievance a woman uses to test the mettle, competence and confidence of her mate. It is an intentional provocation accompanied by an implicit and subconscious desire that the man put his foot down, set reasonable boundaries and demonstrate that he will not be bullied, nagged, shamed or guilted into submission,” says youngsimba1991 of urban dictionary. An earlier definition of “s**t test” was submitted in 2006, the year after Neil Strauss’ “The Game” was published, a book often credited with mainstreaming pick up artistry.
An example of a s**t test:
Simply put: A woman throws s**t at a man to see how he’ll handle it. The evolutionary psychology explanation goes, “A woman has incentive to test the fitness of a potential mate before taking the plunge and having his children.”
Above all else, women are screening for confidence. Authority. “Can I trust his command? Who is going to wear the pants in our relationship?”
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