"From what I've seen, the vast, vast majority of women who are chased by men are single women... women unattached from a committed marriage or relationship partner. I haven't seen many married women with a man chasing desperately after them, but I have seen many single women with chasers in hot pursuit."

"My theory is, the same "philosophy of women" that inspires a man to chase after an unattached woman also dissuades him from interest in an attached one. The theory goes like this: "Once I have a woman, she will be MINE FOREVER!" The corollary to that, of course, is: "Once a woman is with a man, she will NEVER LEAVE HIM." I don't think all men who chase women regularly and desperately think this way, but for a guy who's a habitual chaser or chases women over a long period of time, from what I've seen it's usually the mindset. A woman is something to be acquired, and once she is acquired, the acquisition is permanent."

Quote from study: "For both genders, courtship mild aggression predicted relationship violence, and persistence behaviors predicted similar persistence at breakup. Early behaviors may foreshadow violence and stalking-related behaviors in both men and women."

"What Williams and Frieze are saying here is this: intensified initial courtship behaviors (chasing) are the result of unrequited love."

Found his explanation of chasing interesting, getting a bit creeped out by the whole "persistence" thing...

I like that he flipped the example by gender: "Imagine you meet a girl. She's pretty, flirty, fun. You're really tired the night you meet her; you had a long day; and you really aren't feeling that great. You guys hit it off, but eventually you can hardly keep your eyes open, and you decide that, despite this cute girl in front of you, the only thing you want to do now is go home and hit the hay. Now let's say it can go in one of two possible directions: You tell her you're leaving, and she says, "No, stay. We're having a great time right now; I know you're tired but you can sleep later. Let's keep spending time together right now." You tell her you're leaving, and she says, "Okay." The two of you trade phone numbers. After you leave, you get a text message from her right away saying how much she liked meeting you and she hopes she'll see you soon. The next morning you have a text from her, saying, "Hey, how's it going?" Later she tries calling you to ask you out, but you're busy. Then you see she added you on Facebook. Suddenly, she's calling you, texting you, Facebook stalking you, and all the rest."

To some degree, "persistence" is about having the nerve to be open about your attraction/desire, and to risk being rejected, rather than refusing to be open about your desire, but doing lower risk behaviors you wish will lead to a relationship.

"Where chasing comes from, in my opinion, is realizing that you might've had a shot, but didn't take it."

"What the persistent man knows that other men don't is that when he gets a chance with a girl, it's probably going to be his ONLY chance with that girl. Opportunity knocks once, but if you don't welcome it in on its first visit, it goes and finds someone else a little more welcoming and stops coming by."