How do you know you are being manipulated by others?

Answer 1

It's tough to know at times if one is actually being manipulated; sometimes the manipulators themselves don't know that they are doing it.

On a personal note, when I find myself doing something that I know in the core of my being is wrong, or not something natural to who I am - I look to see if something done or said by other people edged me into a place whereby I would do this thing.

Answer 2

Read this. NO, don't look away. I said read this and that is exactly what you're going to do right now! If you don't read this then nobody likes you and everyone will think you're really stupid, so READ THIS. A man in Des Moines failed to read this and two days later his wife divorced him! In Hognose, Arkansas, a woman failed to read this and ended up moving to Des Moines. The man met the woman, they were married in a rural church that was hit by a meteor during the service. Both were killed. So, you better have read this. If you did, ask yourself, did any of my ploys of threat, disaster, hate, or fate make you feel manipulated?

Bottom line... You know the answer. Mickey O'Roorke once said" If you go to a poker game and look around and don't see "a sucker".....you're the sucker.

If you think you're being manipulated....YOU'RE BEING MANIPULATED!

Answer 3

As opposed to being manipulated by yourself?

The manipulators where labels. "Vote for me!
Biggest car. Most Sales. Best gf/bf. Most sanswers"
The trick is to see the labels.
So you know you're being manipulated when you're not doing things for the reasons that are normal to you.

Answer 4

Only a Fool Feels Secure in a Fool's Paradise

How are you being manipulated?

1) Pressure from above and below

This form of manipulation is based on a knowledge of human nature. It's a fact that most people want to be on the winning side. If it can be made to seem that "most people" support an idea, the vast percentage of a population will jump on the bandwagon in spite of the population's original opinions. First, you create the impression from above; someone in government or in the media touts an idea. Then you push the idea from below: any demonstration or grass roots activity that you can highlighted in the press can be used to give the impression that the average person supports the idea. You've now "sandwiched" the majority of the population. The average man looks above him and sees support for the idea..he look below and see support there also. He will then ask himself, "Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy?" and, because an impression of vast support has been created (by a small number of people), the average citizen will then begin to change his opinion. Manipulators know, that as far as control is concerned, it doesn't matter what the truth is if you can create a belief in your target audience.

2) Through the creation of a false "prominence of being"

This is manipulation through exposure. The more a population is exposed to something, the more that population will think that the thing is important or prevalent. Unfortunately, what that population doesn't realize is that the expressed idea or opinion isn't very important or prominent at all. That impression is only being given to them through "control of exposure time". The longer the exposure can be maintained, the more likely it is that peoples' opinions will actually change. Why? Because people want to be on the winning side.

3) By appeals to emotion in spite of a person's or organization's actions

Prominent psychologists (Kolberg among them) have suggested that only ten percent of the population ever reason at the highest, or adult level. It's a sad fact that most people decide what is true and what is not true by consciously or unconsciously basing their opinions on what makes them feel good at the moment. "It feels good, so it must be true." Psychologists have identified this as one of the "cognitive distortions" (or thinking errors). If you regularly engage in this cognitive distortion then you have opened yourself up to being manipulated by those that will utilize this weakness. Those that are most easily manipulated say, "I feel it so it must be so." Those that reason at the adult level say, "I want to know the truth in spite of how I may feel right now. If my emotions conflict with the truth, I will work on lining my emotions up with what I now know is going on."

4) Through a belief in "collectivism"

This is the belief that individuals exist for the service of, or benefit of, larger organizations. "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." This lie belittles the importance of the individual and benefits those already in power and those who use institutions of government and media for their own selfish purposes. Collectivism also creates the illusion that the individual is obsolete as a power base, when in fact, a society is only as strong as its individuals, and all great ideas, things, and organizations are started and maintained by strong individuals. A belief in collectivism also falsely promotes the idea that great things can't be done by the common man; great things must always be done through existing institutions and already powerful organizations. Again, this is a lie being sold to keep those in power from being challenged. The destructiveness of collectivism doesn't end there. It is also used to justify unjust laws in the guise of "public safety" and lowers all of society to the lowest common denominator. If someone abuses their free agency and commits a crime in one location, because we are now mentally joined in a collective, laws must be created that now "protect" (in reality "punish") everyone everywhere. Even a child knows that it's wrong for one person to be punished for the actions of another. But through the promotion of collectivism, even intelligent individuals are fooled into believing that these same actions performed through law and organizations are now right and justified.

5) Through word manipulation and hypnotic speech

How you every noticed that many of those who promote being "open minded" are only interested in having you be open minded to their ideas, while they feel perfectly justified in maneuvering for a monopoly of opinion? One of the ways they do this is through word manipulation. The idea is to immediately label your opponent with an unsavory term, thereby letting people's already negative feeling ties to that term do the work for you. Those who aren't interested in fairness and the pursuit of truth use this tactic to slant an argument in their favor by ensuring that the opposing side is never even considered. Many of those who recognize the unfairness of stereotyping don't realize that they are engaging in the exact tactic they profess to hate when they simplify an opponents opinions to unsavory sound bites and discounting terminology. This tactic is hypnotic in that it drops people into feeling states immediately and bypassed an individual's conscious reasoning abilities. If an idea is right it will stand on its own; only questionable ideas need the support of inflammatory speech patterns.

6) Through the use of the "sandwich smear"

This is also known as the "propaganda of the lump". This is the technique of lumping legitimate groups with good ideas together with violent, racist, or radical groups that have already been discounted. The legitimate group suffers from the created association when no actual association exists. This is a common tactic used by today's media. By mentioning a good group in the same breath as a despicable one--or better yet, "sandwiched" in speech or print between two despicable groups--the manipulators bamboozles the target audience into associating the negative feeling it has for the bad group with the group that is now being unfairly persecuted.

7) Through slant and omission.

These go hand in hand with creating a false prominence of being. Think of it this way: if a baseball player strikes out 9 out of 10 times but I only highlight and mention the time he got a hit, I will give the impression that he is a better baseball player than he really is. People are manipulated constantly with this technique and are often kept from more correct views of reality because they have only been shown events and news stories that aren't typical of what is generally happening.

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety"
Ben Franklin

Answer 5

You just have this gut feeling/