Passive-aggressive behavior can sometimes be hard to identify. Here are some common phrases to avoid. Passive-aggressive behaviour occurs frequently in everyday interactions with our friends, romantic partners, family members and co-workers. But because it can be insidious, you may not always recognise when it’s happening to you — or when you’re guilty of doing it yourself. What does being “passive-aggressive” mean, exactly? It’s when you express negative emotions, such as anger or hostility, in an indirect (or passive) manner, explained Los Angeles clinical psychologist Ryan Howes — “particularly in a way that is easily deniable or not directly linked to the aggressor.”He offered an example: Say you were frustrated with a loved one. Instead of telling them how you feel, you just “forget” to pick them up from the train station that day. “This is easily deniable as a simple brain fart, but deep down you know you didn’t pick them up because you wanted payback for whatever they did to anger you,” Howes explained. “It’s classified as a