A little hope mixed with a little disapointment

I want to tell you about what happens to me on a daily basis. I know this is not just me, but I also know it's not many people. I always look at people and put them in an experiment of sorts. I love walking up to people, and testing how they react to the certain ways I speak, and to the specific words I say. What I've found is quite interesting.
One day, while I was in school, I gave myself a mission. I would find a few people a day and compliment them on something that I liked about them. The first person I walked up to was a very lovely girl. I walked up and said, "Hello, you look beautiful today." what I expected to hear back was something along the lines of, "Oh, thank you so much." and possibly a compliment back, but in fact just the opposite happened. She looked at me with one of the most disgusted looks on her face, as if I told her she looked like a pig.
This type of thing bothers me. We lack the decency to accept a compliment. Instead, we think there has to be some ulterior motive behind it. We think, at least the people I gathered information about do, that if we let someone think good thoughts about them, then somehow they've won some part of them. I can't really blame the girl, to be honest. She was the type of girl who is fooled easily by the clever lies today's youths spread like wildfire. "I love you, I'll love you forever." It's a straight up lie, and however cleverly worded it might be, it is still an overly used cliche that people continue to fall for.
On another note, there were many people who, when complimented, became overcome with joy. This was my main goal in the experiment. I was really just trying to spread happiness where there wasn't much. I hope I accomplished that.