Cockblocking is a male-to-male inhibitive action that prevents another man from connecting with a woman whom he has shown subtle interest in.

In most circumstances, the person cockblocking will also have an interest in the woman, but she is neutral or disinterested towards him, whilst he is yearning for her. The blocker is therefore extremely unlikely to gain an advantage from this strategy, but might actually be using the tactic as a sort of Kamikaze action, simply to spoil someone else’s post-bar experiences.

The blockers main aim is straightforward: he will be trying to create a persistent interruption that disturbs the natural flow and progression of the seduction. Therefore, this tactic is typically employed by disruptive macho men, who have very few other more intelligent strategies at their disposal.

The cockblock manoeuvre will be an intentional act, such as the blocker deliberately raising a past issue that he knows will cause embarrassment to the man, highlighting and exaggerating his negative character traits, physically intruding himself between the people he is blocking, or even strategically spilling a drink over the gentleman whom he is blocking. This is not an exhaustive list of possibilities, and many more actions are possible, merely limited by the imagination and creativity of the blocker.

From the blockers perspective, a successful result would be that the person being cockblocked is subtly prevented from conversing with a woman that he is trying to get to know better, whilst simultaneously, the person blocked finds himself in a bind:

• On the one hand he cannot raise the issue in front of the social group, without publicly expressing romantic interest in the woman (thereby embarrassing her, and creating an impression that he is desperate or needy)

• On the other hand he cannot confront the person playing cockblock without appearing to be acting irrationally to something that the blocker will always claim was accidental, or simply intended as a joke.

A quick mention should also be made about situations where the man and woman are suddenly and unexpectedly interrupted by an over-protective friend, who insists upon dragging the woman away with some rather arbitrary reason. At first glance, this appears to be a cockblock situation, but in all likelihood this act would be most likely where the man has spent much too long trying to obtain future contact details from the woman; and her friend has either become bored, or fears that she will be abandoned at the bar (or possibly both). Therefore, this situation cannot really be classed as a hostile action carried out for a malicious reason.

If the situation does not occur in an especially noisy environment, it may be possible to drop subtle hints to the girl, casually alluding to the “competition” being faced (or some similar line of conversation); perhaps she will take the hint, be prepared to leave her friends, and move to a different area of the building with a random guy she has just met; but this is unlikely to have a high chance of a successful outcome unless she really likes you already.

If the blocker is a (supposed) friend, then the answer has to be to completely avoid that person in future, since violence or strong language would solve nothing, and the person playing cockblock most probably only has very limited social skills in the first place (or else he would have shown the initiative to find someone else to seduce). In this circumstance, once the blocker realises that it is not socially acceptable to maliciously interfere with another person’s love life, he should either try to make amends and apologize profusely, or find new acquaintances that are more tolerant of his choice of ways of interacting with people.

In the event that a seducer finds the cockblock experience happening to him regularly, the only real solution to the dilemma is to ask why he is going to places where a cockblock so frequently develops… It may be that he is choosing the wrong class of bars or nightclubs - And it should be noted that cockblocking situations occur infrequently outside of these types of establishments.

Finally, in many circumstances, a cockblock situation can be avoided altogether if the seducer is decisive and acts quickly with the woman i.e. before the blocker has an opportunity to realise that someone else has taken an interest in the person that he is pining for. Put simply, don’t rush over to the lady like a lovesick teenager, just pay the woman a visit on the way to a different area of the place you’re in, and if another guy suddenly sidles up to the two of you, be on the look out for the tactics you’ve just learned about. You might even be able to quickly turn the tables on him, if he starts exhibiting signs of anti-social behaviour.

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Posted by Jonathan in Psychology, Sociology