Why can't some people take a compliment?

Answer 1

Maybe it is because either they don't like you or they don't consider it a complement. Perhaps maybe they have never gotten a compliment before so they don't know how to handle it. For some, it could be that they lack the confidence to simply thank the person.

Sometimes the problem is the person giving the "compliment." Maybe they are insincere and are giving cheap compliments with ulterior motives in mind, like trying to con others into becoming sexual partners. Others can usually feel this and ignore the cheap compliments. You don't have to accept compliments, help, or favors when there are strings attached.

Sometimes those giving "compliments" are being sarcastic or abusive, or they have a good compliment buried under bias language, hate speech, or racism. What sounds like a compliment could actually be a veiled put-down. If a man of one race were to call a woman of another race the cutest member of that race they ever saw, it is not exactly a compliment. It is putting her people down by implying that they are mostly ugly. So leave race out of it. If they are cute, they are cute, period.