Concerning 'penny method' dating trend is enough to make you want to be single forever

It’s fair to say dating these days can be an absolute minefield, what with an abundance of apps and bizarre trends to contend with.

There’s everything from ‘pebbling’ to ‘benching’ to watch out for as well as the ‘masterdating’ trend that both single people and couples have been testing out.

Not only that, but hypergamy has been sweeping the UK and now it seems the sinister ‘penny method’ is rearing its head once again.

Last year, a social media user in Toronto claimed she had been told about the dating trend by one of her guy friends and honestly - we have chills.

Taking to TikTok to explain her findings the user, known as @erikatham, said: “Imagine a girl is a piggy bank. In order to get her interested, obviously at first you have to be feeding her hundred-dollar bills.

“But putting in hundred-dollar bills is a lot of work and you don’t always want to be doing that.

“So eventually you reduce it to 90. Now she’s going to feel the decrease in effort, but it’s only 10 percent so if she tries to bring it up, she’s gonna sound crazy at this point.”

Apparently, people practising this strange dating tactic will ‘bump’ the money back up to around £95 so that the woman feels they’ve ‘gained’ money.

“Instead of feeling like she lost five - which is how she would feel if you went directly from 100 to 95 - suddenly she feels like she’s gained five,” the TikToker continued.

“But you are still putting in five percent less effort. Basically, you just keep repeating this cycle and weening her off your effort until you get to the point where you’re giving her pennies and suddenly she’s excited to receive a nickle.

"The idea that men might actually think like this makes me so afraid. Like, is this boy math? Because I don't like it!"

Concluding her viral video, the woman claimed she wanted other potential victims of the 'penny method' to stay 'safe' while dating.

“I think the take away message in all of this is that we should never be accepting anything less than one hundred dollar bills,” she added.

After learning about the savage trend, one TikTok user took to the video’s comments section and wrote: “What ever happened to genuinely liking someone and wanting to spend time with them without games or lies?”

Someone else claimed: “I’m a victim of the penny method but it was a girl that did it.”

While another user wrote: “The effort it takes to manipulate us into excepting less just seems so much harder than being a decent partner.”