'Breadcrumbing:' A Practice That Leads To False Hope In Dating

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The dating world can be tough to navigate – especially when some people play games.

As CBS2's Valerie Castro reported, "breadcrumbing" is the newest term for a bad dating behavior that only leads to false hope.

"It's sort of like a tease. You know, it's incomplete," said dating expert Polina Solda. "There is no follow through. There is no actual plans."

Solda, of Find Love and Keep It, said breadcrumbling can be aggravating and can leave people feeling lost and stuck in ice when it comes to a relationship.

"It leaves a person hanging and hoping and just going through an emotional roller coaster up and down," Solda said.

UrbanDictionary.com said breadcrumbing is also known as "Hansel and Gretelling," and defines it as "when a guy or a girl gives someone just enough attention to keep their hopes of a relationship alive.

"It's a punk move," said Ashley Cadet of Massachusetts. "Just let me go and move on with my life."

"It just seems like a waste of time to me," said Carly Walsh of Rockland County.

"It's dishonest," said Nick Spanos of Manhattan. "Stop doing it!"

Solda said it tends to be a move that feeds egos.

"I think it's 100 percent an ego thing – like. 'Oh, I'm the man. I can text her out of the blue and she's going to respond," said Ashley Lyles of Baltimore.

So how do you deal with the kind of person who will only toss out that occasional breadcrumb? Solda said the easiest thing to do is just not to engage.

"Just cut it off, or you can just tell the person, 'I'm not interested,'" Cadet said.

"I would never talk to that type of person ever again," said Steven Gage of Rockland County. "I mean, it's just – it's very wrong."

All agreed that open and honest communication is the best way to grow a budding romance.

Experts said the breadcrumbing trend happens more often as a result of dating apps where communication is mostly through text messages.