Manipulation

Manipulation typically involves deception to obtain a planned goal with lack of regard for another's interests. A plethora of concepts are discussed in relation to manipulation: threat, constraining options, seduction, bullying, bribery, conditioning another, conning another, and conquering and dividing a group of individuals, to name a few. While manipulation may occur unintentionally, intentional manipulation, with all its moral overtones, is of the most interest to researchers simply because manipulation violates the trust between individuals and impinges on an individual's free will; that is, individuals have goals and the manipulator's deceptive practices limit or redirect the choices of the individual. The fact that there are no contextual or situational limits (that is, boundaries) for when a person can be manipulated explains the ubiquitous nature of manipulation and why almost everyone has a story to tell when asked if they have ever been manipulated.

A key issue involved in manipulation is ambiguity, in a variety of forms. This includes ambiguity as to whether the perceived manipulator is truly uninterested in the individual's goals and desires, or merely misunderstanding and therefore pushing their own goals and desires. There is also ambiguity as to the perceived rationale for the manipulation: Is the supervisor merely managing for the good of the company, or is the teacher motivating the students to learn? There can also be ambiguity as to whether another is actually manipulating an individual; because deception is involved in most instances of ambiguity, a manipulator does not typically admit to their manipulation and may deny it if confronted.

In each of these types of ambiguity, and in other forms not mentioned, doubt is introduced to the individual's understanding of the situation, which can influence the individual in a variety of ways, such as causing the individual to withdraw from the interaction to the extent possible; to probe the situation searching for signals as to the legitimacy of any claims made by the potential manipulator; to remain tentative and refuse to challenge the possible manipulation, because there is no surety that manipulation is occurring; or to assume the other's motives are acceptable and allow the manipulation to occur. These possibilities and more exist because of the doubt introduced with ambiguity, and yet these options only exist if the individual involved questions whether manipulation is occurring.

Manipulation is a complex topic on which knowledgeable persons, such as researchers and philosophers, do not agree. For philosophers it is a moral issue, while for researchers manipulation is embedded in all social situations between people, and the term may be used in a morally neutral manner. Others argue that all communication is persuasive and that manipulation is a form of persuasion, not meant to imply positive or negative morality; thus, the definition of manipulation is broadened dramatically. While this definition is a minority view, it is mentioned here to emphasize the complexity of understanding the concept of manipulation.

Furthermore, there are manipulative situations in which not all individuals involved are deceived, and yet they are still manipulated. For example, Jane wants to claim credit for work she did not do, so she asks Mary if she can join the team that performed the work after the majority of the work is complete. Mary denies Jane's request. Jane responds by saying she will force Mary to make Jane a member of the team. Jane then goes to her uncle, the president of the company, and tells him about all the work she did and how she is not receiving due credit. The president lists Jane as a member of the team and publicly thanks her for all of her work and effort. Jane deceptively [Page 643]manipulated the president and transparently manipulated Mary. The other team members are somewhere on a continuum from undeceived to deceived. Thus, not all forms of manipulation require that everyone manipulated is deceived.

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