Category
Manipulation Tactic
Deliberate strategies for bending someone's perception, decisions or behaviour - often without their awareness.
17 concepts
Astroturfing
Creating the appearance of widespread grassroots support for a position when the support is manufactured, funded, or coordinated from above.
Manipulation TacticConcern Trolling
Disguising hostile opposition as caring advice to undermine a cause from within.
Manipulation TacticDark Patterns
Deliberately deceptive design choices that trick people into doing things they didn't intend to do.
Manipulation TacticDARVO
A manipulation pattern where the offender denies wrongdoing, attacks the accuser, and reverses victim and offender roles.
Manipulation TacticDivide and Conquer
A strategy of breaking apart alliances and turning potential allies against each other to maintain control.
Manipulation TacticDog Whistling
Using coded language that sounds innocent to most people but carries a hidden message to a specific audience.
Manipulation TacticFirehose of Falsehood
Overwhelming audiences with a rapid, continuous flood of disinformation so that truth becomes impossible to defend.
Manipulation TacticFOG (Fear, Obligation, Guilt)
A manipulation pattern that uses fear, obligation, and guilt to control another person's behaviour and override their independent decision-making.
Manipulation TacticGaslighting
Manipulating someone into doubting their own perception, memory, or sanity.
Manipulation TacticGish Gallop
Overwhelming an opponent with a rapid flood of arguments, regardless of accuracy, so that none can be adequately addressed.
Manipulation TacticLove Bombing
Overwhelming someone with excessive affection, attention, and praise early in a relationship to create emotional dependency and control.
Manipulation TacticMotte-and-Bailey
Defending a controversial claim by retreating to an uncontroversial one, then acting as if they are the same thing.
Manipulation TacticSealioning
Disguising harassment as polite, persistent requests for evidence and debate that are never made in good faith.
Manipulation TacticSource Laundering
Passing unreliable information through a chain of increasingly credible-looking sources until it appears legitimate.
Manipulation TacticTone Policing
Dismissing someone's argument by criticising how they expressed it rather than engaging with what they said.
Manipulation TacticWeaponised Hopelessness
When despair is deliberately cultivated to stop people from acting - because people who believe nothing can change won't try to change anything.
Manipulation TacticWhataboutism
Responding to a criticism by pointing to someone else's wrongdoing instead of addressing the original point.