BY TINA FEY
A person preparing to double cross you will strategically work to make you vulnerable by appearing genuinely interested in getting to know you better, disarming you gradually, and then undermining your self-confidence through tactics like negging, focusing on flaws, and distorting the truth, all to gain power over you.
If someone is spreading negative rumors about you, they may be trying to turn people against you, leveraging bad-mouthing as a strategy to gain social power, which is often effective due to their confidence and arrogance in these tactics.
Manipulators are skilled at distorting reality with lies and exaggerations to create the desired emotional environment for their double-crossing plans, using tactics like crying, denying, deflecting, blaming, becoming indignant, and intellectual bullying to confuse and control you, according to Timothy J. Legg, PhD.
A manipulator will continuously push for more control unless you establish and enforce clear personal boundaries, as they may expect leniency due to their belief that they're your true friend looking out for you, according to Davenport and Martin.
If you consistently have a negative gut feeling around a manipulator, it's likely your intuition warning you not to trust them, and it's crucial to heed this inner wisdom, even if things seem fine on the surface, as psychologist Mert Şeker explains.