sapiens

I think that the details are interesting.

I agree that both men and women can be assholes, but to say that people do things because they're "assholes" isn't very illuminating. People do bad things because their "assholes". People do good things because they're "nice". It seems like more of a value judgment than an explanation of the reasons.

I did say in my post that the general reasons why men and women may lead each other on may be the same. I thought that MrFriendly's description of categories of reasons was accurate. However, delving more deeply might reveal differences between the sexes. For example, I know from research experience on breaking up that men and women may both say that they broke up because they had "differing goals" or "differing values". Upon further examination, the differing goals may involve his desire for a younger more attractive wife and her desire for a faithful husband.

Given that men and women appear to have different preferences in long-term mates (which is well-established), I would expect that a woman might lead one type of man on, dump another type of man, and immediately commit to another type of man. I would expect that the characteristics of the men that lead to those outcomes would differ from the characteristics of women that result in them being led on, dumped, or committed to.

EDIT: I feel like I'm getting away from the OP. Are their any other possible reasons for leading someone on?

So far we have:

People are assholes.
People aren't sure of whether or not they want to commit yet.
People are deciding between two or more possible relationships and keeping their options open.
People who are generally indecisive.