Complimenting someone shows our own vulnerability. It's a sign that we like someone. Once people know what we like, they can use that knowledge against us. We're invested in the people/things we like, and we'd do things to keep them around. So some people act indifferently, because they're scared of what will happen if they show their hand.
This kind of mentality can be characterised with Attachment Theory: it falls under the 'anxious-ambivalent: C2 ambivalent-passive' attachment type.
There is an anxious-avoidant type as well, which is less about avoiding the caregiver, and more relating to learnt helplessness: where we feel than no reaction we have will impact the outside world, so we stop caring about how we act around others. This is contrasted with anxious-ambivalent, where we actively show an indifference: because we feel that a reaction (and a sign that we have an attachment to anyone) will negatively impact us.
Often the ideas in our heads start off as unfocused images. As we continue to study ours thoughts, things come into view. The ideas start getting crystallized out from the melt. The nebulous starts becoming solid. This blog contains those thoughts as they develop and become planets in my mind.
