What Happens When You Ignore a Manipulator – 8 Outcomes

Have you ever wondered what happens when you ignore a manipulator?

In our complex interpersonal interactions, we come across certain individuals whose deceitful tactics leave us feeling drained and powerless. Whether it’s personal relationships or professional ones, dealing with a manipulative person can be challenging and emotionally draining.

It comes in handy when you know how to put people in their place gracefully but it has its limitation. What if the other person is determined to hurt you?

In this article, we will discover the fascinating dynamics of ignoring manipulators and the surprising behavior the manipulator will exhibit. When you can anticipate their behavior, it becomes much easier to prepare your defenses.

So stick with us as you don’t want to miss it.

Ignoring a Manipulator

A manipulator is a master of deception who throws bait to catch his prey and relies on him to buy into his toxic games for advantage.

It may sound very threatening and feels like a manipulator has some sort of superpower.

Let’s first assure you that’s not the case at all.

You can easily defend yourself if you know the weaknesses of a manipulator and how he operates. And in this article, we are covering a portion of it. That is what to expect when you ignore a manipulator.

He requires you to believe in the thing the way he projects on you, twisted and tailored to his taste to yield the desired outcome.

A manipulator may this weapon in several ways. Manipulating your thoughts, emotions, decisions, and the like to influence you negatively.

So you have to be cautious as a manipulator could be coming from anywhere.

However, ignoring him will strip him of the opportunity to control you. You will reclaim your power and save yourself from falling into his trap.

But be aware! This ignoring trick does have its limitation and can sometimes harm you more than good. Keep reading to know more about it.

What Happens When You Ignore a Manipulator

Ignoring a manipulator can be an effective way to avoid yourself falling into their trap. However, it may have different consequences depending on the situation.

Without further ado, let’s see what happens when you ignore a manipulator.

1. Manipulator’s frustration will boil up

Imagine trying your best to achieve your desired outcome, even putting your honor and credibility at stake, but the other party won’t just let you have it.

Does not matter how much you push yourself but the opposition won’t even bat an eye and listen to you.

You are bound to feel frustrated and irritated, aren’t you?

That’s exactly what happens when you ignore a manipulator, frustration boiling up from his every pore.

That person had crafted the perfect scheme to make you his next victim but to make it happen, he needed you to listen to his made-up stories that he put his heart into.

That manipulator was almost going to deliver a very dramatic speech, bubbling with lots of energy, charisma, and conviction but since you didn’t pay any attention to that poor soul, he is bound to feel frustrated.

2. Manipulator will accelerate his dirty game

The manipulator with his perfect plan to succeed is doing everything to make his mark.

He is leaving no stone unturned to make you believe him.

But since you are not even paying attention to him let alone listen to him, he will realize his charm isn’t working on you.

Now he will do doubly hard to get back in the game.

He may increase his flattery, and his charisma to soften you up and make way for him to inject you with deadly venom.

He will aim to somehow build rapport with you and bring your defenses down so he could influence you in his favor.

3. The manipulator will get out of character

Let’s be honest.

Manipulation is not an easy game. To be a good player, you have to do some serious acting to get people to believe in you.

You have to conceal your true face and keep working with tricks up to your sleeves.

All of this is too suffocating as it’s not natural to trap your true feelings inside for so long.

Especially when you are not succeeding in your plan, all that suffocation pushes you to get out of your character.

That’s exactly what happens when you ignore a manipulator.

Your ignorance will simply throw him off balance.

The cool mask he wears to appear likable will begin to shake and the real face behind will appear in flashes.

He may even slip up and say something or exhibit such a tone that reflects his true intentions but will usually cover it up sometimes later saying ‘something came over me’.

4. Manipulator will retaliate and seek revenge

Manipulative people usually have a long memory and are quite ruthless.

They are not very kind to those who make them feel bad about themselves.

When you ignore a manipulator, he may feel threatened and resort to retaliation and seek revenge.

He may even try to harm you or your reputation by spreading rumors about you. What makes it even more dangerous is the fact a manipulator usually has good knowledge about you.

He knows your weaknesses, critical points and what ticks you.

He will attack you from where you are the weakest. For example, if you have a tensed relation with your boss, he may spread rumors about you to your boss to worsen your professional relationship.

It actually gives him a sense of control and personal satisfaction.

You should really know when ignoring a manipulator can backfire, hence proceed with caution.

If you know such a person who spread rumors about people who can’t get along with him, it’s best to keep your distance from him.

If he approaches you, just listen to him for the sake of giving him the impression you are not ignoring him but forget about it later on. Don’t believe in anything he throws at you.

5. Manipulator will deploy subtle manipulative ploys

A manipulative person usually has a lot of tricks in his back pocket. When he realizes his game isn’t quite working as you are ignoring him, he may pull out subtle but dangerous tricks to trap you.

He may resort to guilt trapping, gas lighting, or playing victim to get back in the game.

He will tell you how much you’ve hurt him by ignoring him and all he wanted was to help or he would shift the blame of something towards you and tell you it happened because of you.

But be aware!

All of these are just to soften you up and lower your defenses. He wants you to turn your back on him so he could succeed in doing what he wanted in the first place.

This is what happens when you ignore a manipulator who is usually good at using empathy for wrong.

One clever way of dealing with a manipulator who keeps framing himself as a victim is to first acknowledge his good intentions to prevent him from playing further tricks on you.

Just listen to him for the sake of acknowledgment. Tell him you will think about it and that you are very thankful to him for being so sincere with you.

6. Manipulator will resort to Silent Treatment

Have you ever noticed when you disagree with someone, he could be your friend or family member, he suddenly becomes silent? He begins to give you one-word answers and limits his interaction with you.

He will just withdraw himself from you and give you the silent treatment to make you question your actions.

He wants you to feel guilty for your actions and realize how much wrong you have done to them.

You will find yourself doing things for them you wouldn’t be doing otherwise to win them back. You may also feel like a tyrant for disagreeing with them.

This sort of behavior is quite common but very toxic. It not only makes you feel sorry for being so cruel as of disagreeing with them but also run an extra mile to win their attention and approval.

7. The manipulator will seek vulnerabilities in your life

Dealing with a manipulator can be tricky. And not all manipulators are the same, some score high on the manipulative scale.

Now what happens when you ignore a manipulator who is good at reading people, he will exploit you.

He will quickly realize you are ignoring him and resort to seeking vulnerabilities in you.

It is impossible to be perfect, and the manipulator knows it.

He will research you, monitor your actions, and behaviors, try to see whom you mingle and spend time with then try to find weaknesses in you.

He will then craft his plan accordingly to target you where you are the weakest.

For example, if you love puppies and the manipulator came to know about it, he may show up with pups and there is a good chance that you will interact.

The manipulator will proceed to how much he loves pups and things like that to build a rapport with him due to common interests.

Such people are quite subtle but highly dangerous and it’s best to simply cut them off your life as it is too much hassle and risk to be around them.

8. The manipulator may recruit allies – good cop bad cop technique

Do you know about the famous good cop bad technique that is used in the interrogation room to bring down even the toughest enemies?

It is a tactic in which one cop, a ‘bad cop’ appears very hostile and abusive towards the suspect while the other one, a ‘good cop’ appears quite friendly.

The bad cop blames the suspect for the crimes and appears extra aggressive while the good cop sides with the suspect and even defend him.

The victim gravitates toward the good cop and begins to develop trust. Since the walls of defense are down for the good cop, he will be able to influence the suspect and pull out the truth fairly easily.

That manipulator may side with someone else and the duo can play good cop bad cop with you.

Since you are already ignoring the manipulator, his ally will approach you with lots of empathy and compassion and may even pat you on your back for ignoring the manipulator.

You will begin to gravitate towards the ally due to his empathic nature and he will be able to influence you fairly easily.

So be cautious of the people who lash your enemy openly, you never know if they are teaming up to bring you down.

FAQ

Conclusion

That brings us to the end of the article.

We hope you would have got an idea about what happens when you ignore a manipulator.

Let’s have a quick recap of what we have discussed.

Ignoring a manipulator can be an effective strategy to save yourself from unnecessary drama. However, the reaction of the manipulator will depend upon the situation.

Sometimes ignoring a manipulator can be the best thing you can do. Meanwhile, it may cause you significant harm in certain situations.

But let’s see generally what you can expect when you ignore a manipulator:

• A manipulator can become frustrated when you ignore him since he won’t be getting an opportunity to inject you with his venom.
• When you ignore a manipulator, he may speed up his game and try to be more intense in his technique to penetrate you.
• A manipulator when constantly faced with ignorance may begin to get out of character. The cool and collected deceptive mask will begin to wear showing his true colors and intentions.
• A manipulator may retaliate and seek revenge from you if his self-image gets hurt due to your ignoring him. He may spread rumors about you to damage your reputation and do such things behind your back as revenge.
• A manipulator may deploy subtle tactics when he feels he is not making any mark since he is being ignored. He may resort to gaslighting or guilt trapping as a weapon to bring you down.
• He may use the silent treatment as a new trick to make you feel bad for ignoring him.
• The manipulator will seek weaknesses in you and try to sabotage you where you are the weakest.
• He may recruit allies and play good cop bad cop to attack you from where you can’t even imagine.

You could see what happens when you ignore a manipulator in a summarized manner.

If you have any suggestions or feedback related to the content, do let us know.

Have you encountered a manipulator and ignored him? Tell us in the comments below!