IDENTIFICATION GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATORS
Wishing the Best for You — JK I Don’t Care About You
Twisting the minds of the innocent.
You’ve probably heard about the idea that “people can’t fix others” and “you can’t change other people”. Most of the time, that’s true. However, what is occasionally lurking in the dark corners of our minds, is the idea to “force someone to change for your perceived concerns”.
A lot of us don’t get to the point of plotting and planning to “forcefully change someone”, but many of us, do secretly wish (in the tiny back corner of our mind barricaded by our morals) that “they” would change — whether it be an extremely bad habit a friend has, or a harmful attitude a family member holds.
For people who already have a twisted mindset and also continue to hold the idea to “forcefully change someone”, we get a psychological manipulator who acts on the persona of “caring for someone”; when actually they don’t care.
For example, some things you’ll likely hear from these manipulators are:
- “You should do ______. It’ll really help you.”
- “Come on! I just want you to be successful.” OR “I just want you to be successful.”
^This usually occurs when a person wants to market you a service, advice, etc. but failed to persuade you otherwise.
- “Hey, I care about you” and then expects you to do something that they suggested afterwards.
^This phrase is not malicious if the person saying this does not expect you to do anything or pushes you towards anything.
And many more…
Main Tactics:
Preys on whenever the person feels down (where they are the most open to suggestions, advice, etc.) and acts as a person who “really cares about them”. They will utilize their life experiences to craft persuasive advice (that really only benefits them) so that it seems that it is a good idea for the target to follow that advice.
Example: People who weren’t there for you in the beginning, but when you suddenly become more successful, attractive, etc., they start to send you messages, do things, or say things to “show they care” when you are down (can also happen when you’re not down).
Advanced Main Tactics:
The more advanced breeds tend to craft extremely persuasive advice that seem to benefit both sides — the manipulator and the target. Although it breaks the rule of “maximizing benefits” for the manipulator (and seems as if it benefits the target more), the crafted advice actually benefits the manipulator indirectly through the behaviors adopted from following the advice (and then pursues their plans using those behaviors).
With the adopted behaviors, the target becomes more predictable and if those behaviors bring success to the target, the target learns to trust the manipulator and their advice in the future. From here, this cements the manipulator’s disguise as “one of the good people” in the target’s books.
