It's a dynamic where each party can feel the need to cover one's own insecurities resulting in (unintentionally) invaliding the other party. One side aims to ju

It's a dynamic where each party can feel the need to cover one's own insecurities resulting in (unintentionally) invaliding the other party. One side aims to justify a sunk cost and the other to prove themselves and it becomes a chain reaction whereby everyone becomes engaged in ego defense/vuln attack until someone goes "wow you are really intelligent" and breaks the cycle.