 Did you know that the term gaslighting originated from a play in 1938? It was about a husband who manipulated his wife by playing with the gaslights. Nowadays, the term often refers to a serious psychological issue in which one person manipulates or abuses the thoughts and actions of another person, ultimately leading to a distortion of their reality. Gaslighting can damage a relationship between two people, whether between friends, lovers, or family. Are you wondering if you are gaslighting someone without knowing it? To give you more insight and reassurance, here are a few signs you are gaslighting someone, even if you don't mean to. 1. Minimization One of the most common signs of gaslighting and the most dangerous is messing with the other person's feelings. When your friend is crying about her stolen backpack and you respond with, you're exaggerating, then that's a sign that you are minimizing your friend's feelings. Gaslighting will make the victim's feelings seem absurd and unjust, claiming them for being too sensitive and overreactive. This will cause an emotional unbalance for the other person, and they'll begin to question themselves and their sanity. 2. Distracting Your friend asks you about what you've done this weekend, but you ship the subject by asking about the way she said it. Do you often distract others this way? This might not be an obvious sign of gaslighting, but it is a start. Many people like to hide details of their life from other people. Maybe because they're embarrassed or they're afraid of jealousy, but gaslighters will distract you from your purpose, turning the tables around. For example, when you ask why the lights were on when you left the house, a gaslighter will respond with something like, what's wrong with your memory lately? 3. Lying You surely have played the telephone game when you were a child, also known as transmission chain experiment in cultural evolution research. Information gets passed around a group, each person whispering what was said to them in the next person's ear, and then revealed at the end. Most often, the truth gets distorted as the words get passed on. It's a funny game to play, however. Gaslighters take it more seriously, incorporating it into everyday life by lying and distorting the truth. Do you lie to others often? Lying can be about the simplest things, such as who switched the TV channel, but slowly, over time, these subtle little changes will create a big impact on the receiver's mental health, resulting in a distortion of reality. 4. Denial I don't remember. That never happened. These phrases are commonly used by gaslighters. They'll deny something happened, or that they've done something wrong to tamper with the victim's memory. This will cause the victim to feel ignored and their opinions unheard. In the future, the victim will not be sure what exactly happened. Was it real, or were they just imagining it? Sometimes it really can be the case where you don't remember such a thing happening. Maybe because you were drunk, or maybe because you have a bad memory. But when you know what happened and deny it, then that is gaslighting. 5. Isolation A gaslighter will often try to make the other person feel lonely and helpless by claiming that other people talk about them behind their back, or that people don't like them. Gaslighters will isolate their victims, separating them from their family and friends by spreading false information. They may claim that everyone thinks they're crazy. In this way, the victim will believe that they have no one, and will therefore turn to and believe the gaslighter. Gaslighting is a form of emotional manipulation in which the victim is made to believe that their thoughts and memories are incorrect. Sometimes people are not aware of their actions, and the effects it has on others. So it's important to take some time and get to know yourself. If you minimize the other person's feelings, distract them, lie about the truth, deny their statements, and isolate them, then you are probably gaslighting them. Did you relate to any of these points? Do you think you've been gaslighting someone in your life? Ooh, feel free to share with us your thoughts in the comments down below. If you liked this video, share it with someone who could use it. And if you love psychology, consider subscribing and hitting the notification bell icon for more psychology content like this. As always, thanks so much for watching Psych2Goers!