Interesting Psychology Team
Manipulation is all around us. There are so many people in our daily lives who are looking to manipulate and convince others to go along with what they want to the point that it can feel like everyone is out to get the others.
There are a few situations where manipulation can become more apparent, and when you look through a few of them, you may start to realize that you have already dealt, or are currently dealing with, a few of these manipulation examples below:
1. Home-Court Advantage
Someone who is trying to manipulate another person is always going to try and gain the upper hand in the situation. They may find that it is easier to invite their victim to a meeting, or to interact in another way, in a physical space where the manipulator will be able to exercise more control and dominance.
The manipulator may choose to meet with their victim to discuss something in the car, office, home, or in some other space where they feel more ownership and familiarity, while the victim may not be familiar with these at all.
The victim will usually agree to meet in this place because they think that the manipulator is nice and hospitable. This allows the manipulator to have the upper hand that they are looking for, but the victim is not going to realize that this is what is going on until it is too late.
2. Allowing You to Speak First
Many manipulators like to allow their victim to speak first. This can work in several ways. First, the victim is going to leave with the false sense that they were the ones in charge, or that the manipulator was deferring back to themβbut in reality, the manipulator likes to let their victim speak first so that they can get a baseline for where the victim is, sniff out any of the weaknesses, and then uses this to their own advantage along the way.
This is something that you will see with sales quite a bit. The salespeople will ask their victim some general and probing questions. This allows them to establish the baseline of the victimβs behavior and thinking. From here, they can get a good idea of your weaknesses and strengths. This type of questioning will have a hidden agenda, and we may be able to find it in other places of our lives, such as in personal relationships and in the workplace.
3. Changing Around the Facts
If the manipulator is able to change up some of the facts that are present in the discussion, they are going to do so. They are especially going to do this if theyΒ find that changing up the facts will put them in a better light. There are a lot of examples of this that we can see in our day-to-day lives.
They may show a one-sided bias of the issues, or work with exaggeration. Sometimes, the manipulator will strategically withhold information that is key to the victim making a good decision. They may try to blame the victim for causing their own victimization; they may deform the truth; they may lie and make excuses up as well.
4. Adding in Lots of Statistics and Facts
There are some manipulators who like to use the idea of intellectual bullying against their victim. This is done when the manipulator presumes to be the expert and the one who is the most knowledgeable in certain areas. The manipulator is going to be able to accomplish this technique by taking advantage of their victim using alleged facts, statistics, and some other data, especially if this information is stuff that the victim may not know much about.
We may see this kind of tactic when we are looking at financial and sales situations. In these, the professional is going to presume that they have the expert power over you, and they hope that because of this, they will be able to push through their own agenda onto you easier. Some people like to use this kind of technique just for the benefit of feeling a sense of intellectual superiority over other people.
