Yeah, that’s because we’ve encountered zero aggressive reactions as a result of a (fake) number, but have encountered tons upon tons of aggressive reactions as a result of a no, until we’ve learned that No. is a dangerous statement around some heterosexual males who have their penis set on a target. You never can say upon first contact if you’re dealing with a reasonable human being or ‘one of those ones’. Just sayin’. This doesn’t apply to our friend-zone situation, but if you wanted an actual explanation for the fake number behaviour, there it is. Give women a good decade of men never reacting violently upon having their advances rejected, and I assure you this comfort around lying that we’ve developed to counter advances from men we have never met, will be gone along with it. It’s fear. Simply put, around men we don’t know and therefor whose reactions we cannot trust, we are afraid of the potential consequences of our honesty.