Traditional roles remain.
Men are essentially, still ... hmm... in Chinese, jian4. If a guy
knows you have the hots for him, he'll revel in it and take the
girl for granted, acting like a total jerk towards her, knowing
that she'll still hang around him.
But whoa... give the man a girl who snubs him, ignores him, does
not worship the ground he walks on, and I give you a man who is
dead-set interested in pursuing this currently-unattainable
chick.
Part of the hunter instinct in the hunter-gatherer make-up of the
male mind, to borrow a term you like to use! 