Table of contents:
- What is manipulation?
- Frequently used manipulation tactics
- 1. Lying
- 2. Deny and avoid
- 3. Blaming and belittling others
- 4. Intimidate and act like a victim
“I didn't do it. Didn't you do it? " Occasionally, you may have heard people around you say this. It could be that this is their attempt to both manipulate and confuse you. Come on, find out more about the following manipulations and tactics.
What is manipulation?
Before delving into the tactics, you must first understand what manipulation is. According to a study at the American Psychological Association, manipulation is a way for a person to change the environment to suit what he wants.
Reporting from the page Psychcentral , a psychologist named George Simon argues that manipulators — people who manipulate — deliberately say or employ manipulation tactics in order to get what they want.
One form of manipulation that is dangerous is gastlisting . This action makes a person feel weaker, guilty, and doubts himself, so slowly backs up and allows "inappropriate" behavior to be accepted.
Frequently used manipulation tactics
When dealing with people who are manipulative and show empathy, you may be used again and again. In order to avoid this manipulator trap, you need to know what tactics are used, such as:
1. Lying
Lying is a powerful weapon that is often used as a manipulation tactic. Not to hide guilt, but to confuse you.
If a manipulator sees an opportunity to get what he wants by lying, they will lie.
The hallmark of their lies is hiding big secrets or distorting the truth.
To detect lies from a manipulator, you need to dig it up with questions. Not once, but several times, even over and over. If the answers given are unclear and inconsistent, this could be a sign to you that he is lying.
2. Deny and avoid
When making mistakes, the mainstay of manipulation tactics a manipulator uses is denial. Yes, this is done by preparing a variety of reasons to sympathize with you.
Initially, you who feel that he is guilty will then doubt your beliefs so that you will forgive what he did.
Apart from being in denial, manipulative people will usually go to great lengths to avoid them. This action is taken to avoid responsibility.
Refusing to bring up the matter when you want to discuss it is one of the most common tactics manipulators employ.
You may hear him say, “Aren't you tired of asking that question? Annoying you know, don't you? " This word is deliberately said to make you feel that the current action is really annoying. Finally, it makes you step back and don't want to talk about it again.
3. Blaming and belittling others
The next tactic the manipulator uses when he makes a mistake is to blame the other person. The mistakes he made can also be used as a weapon against you, making yourself the guilty one.
Apart from not admitting mistakes, manipulators can also make you feel weak. His tactics usually make you look down on others, such as mentioning your ugliness, inadequacies, or shortcomings.
4. Intimidate and act like a victim
A manipulator often intimidates his opponent. Not with threats, but in more subtle words. They use this manipulation tactic to make you feel scared and give up.
If that doesn't work, the last weapon the manipulator uses is playing as the victim, aka placing oneself as if they were victims.
If he usually blames others, he tends to use this manipulation tactic to show that he is the victim and is suffering and regretting what happened the most. Here he also builds sympathy for his opponent.
That way, the mistakes made will be increasingly blurred and the perpetrator is also considered a victim. As a result, there will be relief for the perpetrator for the wrong done.