What Is Manipulation?

Manipulation is a word that is often treated in a negative way, as if manipulating someone inevitably involves dehumanizing, using, and discarding them.  Manipulation certainly could be applied in such an unethical way.  But manipulation itself is merely the use of influence to persuade a person to do what you want them to.  Since influence is not wrong, manipulation itself cannot be immoral.  At its core, manipulation is like the more specific practice of bribery in that it is not wrong unless the end for which it is used is wrong [1].  Otherwise, it is morally neutral.

Many people attempt to use manipulation every day without ever lapsing into moral wrongdoing.  Every time someone alters a behavior with the objective of affecting someone else's respective behaviors as a result, they are using manipulation.  The goals and methods can vary with the person and situation, but this process is manipulation at its core in every case.  It is simply not called that regularly or openly.

Consider job interviews: the whole point of them (on the side of the one being questioned) is to manipulate the perceptions of a potential employer enough to convince him or her to hire you.  This does not mean that the interviewee relies on deception or sees the interviewer as nothing more than a pathway to a possible career.  It is only when people mentally reduce others to nothing but a useful but temporary tool--objectifying them by this reductionistic attitude--that their manipulation becomes immoral.

Ethical manipulation is possible, being something that many people already live out on a daily basis.  Whether it's the manipulation of a teacher to obtain a grade or manipulation of a manager to achieve a workplace goal, a person can exercise their influence in a way that does not hurt or trivialize those around them.  On one level, many people seem to realize this, as their behaviors show that they do not object to this basic manipulation in practice.  But few will use words to verbally identify their use of influence and persuasion what it is.


[1].  See here:
  A.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/02/understanding-bribery.html
  B.  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/04/refuting-objections-to-bribery_9.html