I thought this was instructive. From r/askhamsters: "Women of Reddit. An attractive guy comes up to you and tells you he thinks you're pretty. Asks if you would like to get lunch so he can get to know you better. How do you respond?"

http://np.reddit.com/r/AskWomen/comments/1ll3uv/women_of_reddit_an_attractive_guy_comes_up_to_you/

There are a few highly-upvoted people saying they'd do it, but check out the majority of the responses. Most of them say no and for most of them the big sticking point is the fact that he mentioned her looks right off the bat. "I'd think he was only interested in me for my looks!"

Think about that for a second. A guy approaches a woman he doesn't know, a perfect stranger, and asks her for a date. What in God's name besides her looks could he possibly have to interest him at that point? Her shoes? Her fucking handbag? Come on.

The dude knows this. The woman even knows this, somewhere deep down beneath the morass of hamstering that makes up the thinking of your average woman.

But she doesn't want to hear that, no matter how true and unavoidable it is in first encounters. This guy wants me for my looks? Well that makes me a big dirty objectified slut if I agree to go out with him now.

She can't hamster that he really just wants to get to know her or thought she seemed like a cool person or whatever silly bullshit her hamster would normally cook up for her when a guy approaches her because the guy already gave her the real honest reason--which happens to make her feel bad and is therefore unacceptable in the feelings-ruled life of a woman. (Coincidentally, a beta would also be more likely to think the honest approach is the way to her heart and will of course get shot down unless he's just ridiculously attractive--probably even then.)

They literally want you to lie to them. Just look at the thread. Response after response of them saying they'd reject a guy that they otherwise might not simply for stating something that is obviously, plainly, unavoidably true.

Such is the mind of women.

Edit to add:

Started to address this in the comments one-by-one but I decided to put my thoughts here due to lack of time.

Some of you are expressing skepticism at believing the women over there when they say they wouldn't go for it. While I think all of us here would agree that you can't trust what a woman says at all, that doesn't mean it's Opposite Day where literally everything they tell you is the exact opposite of the truth. And when it comes to things that make them feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel bad, the whining babies are good at showing it. In this case, their stated reasons for not liking the thing may be bullshit, but that doesn't mean they're lying about disliking it.

I mean, honestly, fellas, do you really think your average dude is going to have much luck if he goes up to random women, tells them they're pretty and asks for a date? Come on. If you're above-average looks and confident and say it with the right inflection, you might have some success with it. But you're going to crash and burn most of the time and it's certainly not the most effective way to hit on a woman.

They may not be aware or honest about the real reason this approach bothers them, but clearly it does. And the reason is it puts them in the position of having to mentally acknowledge that a guy is looking at them like a sex object, which makes them feel slutty and bad if they go for it. If you're hot and confident enough, they may overlook it, but there are better ways. Besides that, it turns them off instinctively because complimenting them is supplicating behavior--not the hallmarks of an alpha male.