Future-Faking: Big Promises With No Follow-Through

Talking about marriage on the third date. Planning a vacation they never book. Describing the house you'll buy together next year. Future-faking creates emotional investment in a shared future that the person has no intention of building. Psychologist Perpetua Neo describes it as a manipulation tactic where someone uses your hopes as a bonding tool. The test is simple: do their actions match their words over weeks and months? Words are free. Plane tickets, consistent behavior, and showing up when it's inconvenient are not.