History Main / Gaslighting

* WebVideo/{{Kitboga}} is a scambaiter popular on Website/YouTube and Website/{{Twitch}}.

Gaslighting is deliberately trying to drive someone mad by altering their environment without their knowledge, then denying it. In a more general sense, it's denying someone's perceptions of reality in order to cause confusion, anguish, and paranoia. You move their things, transmit noises into their room when no one else is there, change little details about your dress behind their back, and so on. Or you [[OutOfCharacterMoment start acting drastically differently than you usually do]]. When they confront you about it, you claim to have no idea what they’re talking about and feign concern for their memory and mental health. Soon, they are convinced that they're hearing voices, seeing dead people, hallucinating, or whatever. The victim can become so convinced that they're going insane that [[SelfFulfillingProphecy they actually go insane]].

* The guys at ''Creator/RoosterTeeth'' have been prone to do this to each other for kicks. Two known instances were when Burnie, Gavin, and Jordan replied to Gus' [=IMs=] with [[https://youtu.be/pNp_xEw6Zpg quotation marks around their replies]], driving Gus nuts as he was wondering how that was happening, and when [[https://youtu.be/T61HfHO7QLw Ryan rigged a buzzer inside Gavin's desk]] (under the computer monitor).

* This occurs in TheStinger of Season 1 Episode 8 of ''[[WebVideo/DreamSMP Tales From the SMP]]'', "The Pit". [[spoiler:After Karl finds the secret room he found one trip earlier completely covered in blood, [[GeniusLoci the Inbetween]] tries to convince him he's just hallucinating, and that his [[LossOfIdentity deteriorating mind]] can't be trusted. Fortunately, Karl manages to make his escape at the end of the episode to the Other Side, a mirror version of the Inbetween which, as far as we know, is far more honest about its intentions.]]

* An attempt was made in mid 2023 to "[[https://www.instagram.com/p/CrllyquPc9z/ basically gaslight the MLP community]]" into thinking an unnamed incidental character's name was Shitfuck, hoping to get it canonized much like how many other such ''Franchise/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' background characters have been given AscendedFanon names. To say it failed ''miserably'' is an understatement, as it basically boiled down to a number of artists making a [[https://trixiebooru.org/tags/swift%2Breply tepid dose]] of fanart[[note]]For reference, she got about 120 pictures in three months -- thiat fandom is able to pump out that much art ''within a day'' when a background character becomes popular enough to get a Fanon name[[/note]] of this character that basically just said "Shitfuck" somewhere on it, most of which got zero attention and the few that did all basically had the same four users angrily insisting that was her canon name in the comments -- the few others who commented basically mocked these artists and users for trying to {{force|dMeme}} a meme and thanked them for all the free artwork of a character who got absolutely none before this.

* The ''[[WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun LoadingReadyRun]]'' Crapshot #443, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQM_oLgIdZo "The Gaslight,"]] shows both sides of gaslighting. Presenting itself as an ad for "Dave's Gaslight-o-torium," it repeatedly insists that the viewer wouldn't ''really'' be interested at shopping at a warehouse for messing with someone else's perception of reality 'cause that ain't them, while at the same time subtly changing the accessories Dave is wearing. By the end, the video has turned into an ad for "Ernest's Furnace Warehouse, the most trusted name in gas lighting."

--> '''Schlatt:''' Gold, have we ever wronged you? \\

'''Schlatt:''' [[BlatantLies That memory escapes me.]] \\

In real life, this is a common tactic employed by the abuser in [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} abusive relationships]], especially those that revolve around an imbalanced power dynamic, including domestic abuse and school/workplace bullying. The goal for the abuser is to trick the victim into doubting their own sound judgement and perception at every turn, which usually serves a two-folded purpose. Firstly to make the victim susceptible to the idea that if the abuser commits a violent or other criminal/transgressional act on them, it didn't actually happen, just like the other things the abuser denied happened. Secondly, if the victim can be persuaded that they are not of sound mind and only the abuser is capable of seeing the truth, they can be fooled into depending on the abuser to tell them what's real and what's not, keeping them in proximity for the abuser to commit more abusive acts against them. In short, the abuser is able to both cover their crimes and gain the victim's captive loyalty by telling them a convincing lie enough times that their word becomes "the truth". For similar reasons, the technique has also been employed for purposes of political repression by the SecretPolice agencies of authoritarian regimes, both on a mass scale and towards individual targets deemed threats.

[[TropeNamers The name comes from]] the 1938 play ''Film/{{Gaslight}}'' (later adapted into two separate films of the same name), where a woman's abusive husband tries to manipulate her into believing she is going insane. Her husband inadvertently dims the gas lights of their home, but assures his wife she is simply imagining it and makes her believe she is going mad.

* In ''Manga/HeavenlyDelusion'', [[spoiler:Kiruko]] ends up being a victim of this tactic by the Head of the Water Filtration Centre, who turns out to be [[spoiler:[[BrokenPedestal Inazaki Robin]], Kiruko’s former BigBrotherMentor who [[EtTuBrute took advantage of her trust in him]] to [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil rape]] her. However, at first Kiruko resisted and screamed, so Robin knew needed a way to keep her silent and make her more submissive. He recalled that “Kiruko” had the body of Kiriko Takehaya with Haruki Takehaya’s [[BrainTransplant brain inside of it due to a medical procedure]] in the past, thus she believed herself to be Haruki, which gave Robin an idea to break her.\\

* When [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] begins seeing and hearing people who aren't there during his review of ''Comicbook/SilentHill: Dead/Alive'', he tells himself that someone must be trying to pull this trope on him. It doesn't seem to be helping much. [[spoiler:It turns out he's right.]]

* This occurs in TheStinger of Season 1 Episode 8 of ''[[LetsPlay/DreamSMP Tales From the SMP]]'', "The Pit". [[spoiler:After Karl finds the secret room he found one trip earlier completely covered in blood, [[GeniusLoci the Inbetween]] tries to convince him he's just hallucinating, and that his [[LossOfIdentity deteriorating mind]] can't be trusted. Fortunately, Karl manages to make his escape at the end of the episode to the Other Side, a mirror version of the Inbetween which, as far as we know, is far more honest about its intentions.]]

* ''{{Website/Clickhole}}'': [[http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/i-keep-my-grandfathers-mind-active-calling-him-eve-1589 "I Keep My Grandfather’s Mind Active By Calling Him Every Day And Telling Him World War II Never Happened"]] is a bizarre inversion, where the mind games are meant to keep the victim ''sane''.

* ''WebVideo/SMPLive'': Schlatt & Co. do this to Gold when they try to convince him to buy a map with a picture of Belle Delphine from them.

[[caption-width-right:288:[[AltText 'I bet he'll keep quiet for a couple weeks and then-- wait, did you nail a piece of scrap wood to my antique table a moment ago?']]]]

* ''Series/TheWeather'': Discussed; Cricket says she'll "break up with 'her'", and her caller encourages her to do so because her partner was apparently gaslighting her this whole time. It's never elaborated upon, but Cricket admits he's right and that she just needs to be brave and get out of the relationship.

* This can be incorporated with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf The Elf on the Shelf]] figures. The idea is the titular elf is a scout for SantaClaus, reporting which children are naughty or nice between the holidsays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. While most parents may just place the figuring in their child's room, some will move the elf during the night, making the child think the elf isn't just a mere toy.

In real life, this is a common tactic employed by the abuser in [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} abusive relationships]], especially those that revolve around an imbalanced power dynamic, including domestic abuse and school/workplace bullying. The goal for the abuser is to trick the victim into doubting their own sound judgement and perception at every turn, which usually serves a two-folded purpose. Firstly to make the victim susceptible to the idea that if the abuser commits a violent or other criminal/transgressional act on them, it didn't actually happen, just like the other things the abuser denied happened. Secondly, if the victim can be persuaded that they are not of sound mind and only the abuser is capable of seeing the truth, they can be fooled into depending on the abuser to tell them what's real and what's not, keeping them in proximity for the abuser to commit more abusive acts against them. In short, the abuser is able to both cover their crimes and gain the victim's captive loyalty by telling them a convincing lie enough times that their word becomes "the truth". For similar reasons, the technique has also been employed for purposes of political repression by the SecretPolice agencies of authoritarian regimes, both on a mass scale and towards individual targets.

In real life, this is a common tactic employed by the abuser in [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} abusive relationships]], especially those that revolve around an imbalanced power dynamic, including domestic abuse and school/workplace bullying. The goal for the abuser is to trick the victim into doubting their own sound judgement and perception at every turn, which usually serves a two-folded purpose. Firstly to make the victim susceptible to the idea that if the abuser commits a violent or other criminal/transgressional act on them, it didn't actually happen, just like the other things the abuser denied happened. Secondly, if the victim can be persuaded that they are not of sound mind and only the abuser is capable of seeing the truth, they can be fooled into depending on the abuser to tell them what's real and what's not, keeping them in proximity for the abuser to commit more abusive acts against them. In short, the abuser is able to both cover their crimes and gain the victim's captive loyalty by telling them a convincing lie enough times that their word becomes "the truth". For similar reasons, the technique has also been employed for purposes of political repression by the SecretPolice agencies of authoritarian regimes, both on a mass scale and towards individual targets (''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is a prediction/explanation of the former; ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers'' is a fictionalized description of the latter).

In real life, this is a common tactic employed by the abuser in [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} abusive relationships]], especially those that revolve around an imbalanced power dynamic, including domestic abuse and school/workplace bullying. The goal for the abuser is to trick the victim into doubting their own sound judgement and perception at every turn, which usually serves a two-folded purpose. Firstly to make the victim susceptible to the idea that if the abuser commits a violent or other criminal/transgressional act on them, it didn't actually happen, just like the other things the abuser denied happened. Secondly, if the victim can be persuaded that they are not of sound mind and only the abuser is capable of seeing the truth, they can be fooled into depending on the abuser to tell them what's real and what's not, keeping them in proximity for the abuser to commit more abusive acts against them. In short, the abuser is able to both cover their crimes and gain the victim's captive loyalty by telling them a convincing lie enough times that their word becomes "the truth". For similar reasons, the technique has also been employed for purposes of political repression by the SecretPolice agencies of authoritarian regimes, both on a mass scale and towards individual targets (''Literature/{{1984}}'' is a prediction/explanation of the former; ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers'' is a fictionalized description of the latter).

In real life, this is a common tactic employed by the abuser in [[UsefulNotes/{{Abuse}} abusive relationships]], especially those that revolve around an imbalanced power dynamic, including domestic abuse and school/workplace bullying. The goal for the abuser is to trick the victim into doubting their own sound judgement and perception at every turn, which usually serves a two-folded purpose. Firstly to make the victim susceptible to the idea that if the abuser commits a violent or other criminal/transgressional act on them, it didn't actually happen, just like the other things the abuser denied happened. Secondly, if the victim can be persuaded that they are not of sound mind and only the abuser is capable of seeing the truth, they can be fooled into depending on the abuser to tell them what's real and what's not, keeping them in proximity for the abuser to commit more abusive acts against them. In short, the abuser is able to both cover their crimes and gain the victim's captive loyalty by telling them a convincing lie enough times that their word becomes "the truth".

[[folder:Real Life]]
* In an interview on C-SPAN in 2004, Creator/JonStewart actually referenced the idea, saying that the [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush Bush]] administration's spinning in the face of what Stewart believed was overwhelming evidence made it "feel like they're trying to ''Gaslight'' me".
* A British mental health organisation managed to do this by accident when they ran a series of banner ads on various websites (including Website/YouTube) in order to increase awareness about various mental health issues. One of the banner ads was about paranoia, and it involved playing constant, quiet whispers over the speakers/headphones that were alternatingly insulting and indistinct until the user rolled their mouse cursor over the advert. Some people, however, did not notice the advert and were genuinely disturbed by the effect, thinking they really ''were'' hearing voices.
* One of the hobbies of the UsefulNotes/MansonFamily was to break into people's houses and rearrange all of their furniture, most likely used as a terror tactic to start their global race war.
* UsefulNotes/TheStasi (secret police of UsefulNotes/EastGermany) loved this. If someone was suspected of being a dissenter, they'd sneak into the person's house and move things around, switch out types of tea, and do other things to distress them without them knowing what is going on. Needless to say, the Stasi were quite effective in using ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zersetzung Zersetzung]]'' against political undesirables.
* It has been alleged that this tactic is still used to discredit people who get too vocal about causes and irritate agents of the grouping or nation they are active against. Of course people alleging this can then be dismissed, without hard proof, as paranoid, flaky, or mentally deranged -- which also discredits the cause they are campaigning for, by association. The [[http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Israeli-footwear-conspiracy-UK-activist-accuses-Mossad-of-stealing-shoe-405967 Asghar Bukhari]] case is interesting.
* Gaslighting is a tactic often used by crafty domestic abusers to tie partners down to their relationship. By re-arranging things, getting items "lost", and saying events happened differently than remembered, they create the sense that the victim has no idea how to handle their own life and needs to depend on the abuser to help them survive because they doubt that they could survive on their own.
** Abusers don't even have to be that crafty. One of the reasons partners have trouble leaving abusers is that they have been gaslit to believe that the abuse they are suffering is actually their fault, the cliched line [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou "Why did you make me do that to you?"]] sums up the situation in a nutshell.
* One of the criticisms of [[SmartHouse "smart houses"]] is that it adds a [[https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/legal-matters/201907/gaslighting-in-the-age-smart-home-technology new threat vector for gaslighting]].
* A mild humorous example. Critic Alexander Woollcott had a portrait of himself he was very fond of. A couple fellow Algonquin Round Table members had a series of near-duplicates made with details just a tiny bit askew. For months they would periodically swap in a new duplicate and query, "Alex, whatever is happening to that painting?"
* Some party games involve a mild (and benevolent) form of gaslighting. One example is that a player (usually a child) is blindfolded, stands on a chair with their hands on the shoulders of somebody in front of them. The chair is lifted up a couple of inches, and the person on whose shoulders the child's hands are crouches. This can make the child feel as if they are flying up into the air; if a book is gently lowered on to their head, they might believe they have floated up to the ceiling. If they take their blindfold off, they might be astonished to find they are still near the ground.
* In 2022, the creators of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' retconned the name of "Token" to "Tolkein". Since then, episode listings online have changed any mention to "Tolkein", subtitles have changed all mentions of "Token" to "Tolkein" (Except for when Stan says his name), and all wikis have since received edit wars to remove all mention of "Tolkein" being "Token" outside of the Marsh family mistaking his name for "Token".
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* Zouken Matou tries this on Sakura in ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''. He thinks he succeeded. [[KickTheSonOfABitch He's wrong,]] [[FreakOut it was a coincidence]].
** Arguably, it still works, [[GoneHorriblyRight just a little too well for his own good]].

[[ExistentialHorror This revealed a deep-seated fear she had of her real identity]] after the medical procedure she went through in the past, which broke her down from a tough ActionGirl who fought literal monsters and took crap from nobody into a traumatized wreck who only wanted to “obey orders” from her rapist. The only thing keeping her from crossing the DespairEventHorizon was that she knew her friend [[FireForgedFriends Maru]] was still out there, having resorted to pleading that he would save her. Fortunately, [[BigDamnHeroes he did later]] after [[KickTheSonOfABitch giving Robin a much-needed comeuppance for his betrayal]] of an orphan he used to take care of in the past]].

* The advice Shaggy gives to his cheating friend in "It Wasn't Me" boils down to convincing his girlfriend that she hadn't witnessed her boyfriend sleeping with the next-door neighbor, despite the ImplausibleDeniability of having caught them in the act. Shaggy's advice extends beyond merely insisting "it wasn't me," encouraging his friend to further mess with his girlfriend's head by convincing her nighttime is daytime.

* ''Anime/BloodC'': This is actually done by the BigBad [[spoiler:Fumito Nanahara where he hires actors to play as Saya's friends and lets them pretend that they were killed by the Elder Bairns just to provoke an emotional response from Saya just to see whether she could retain her new personality or not. He also drugged Saya with coffee and marshmallows whenever her old memories resurfaced. But the whole gaslighting stops after some of the actors get fed up waiting for Fumito to give them their rewards and decide to finish the job themselves by forcing Saya to drink her own blood and revealing to her that it's all a set-up.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing'': Scar manages to manipulate Simba into believing that he is responsible for Mufasa's death when in truth, he did it.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In [[http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-11-02/ this]] ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'', the title character says that he goes down to marketing every week to move an employee's cubicle wall in by a quarter inch. When asked why, he comments that he's been at it so long (Given that the cubicle is now about six inches wide, he's apparently been doing this for roughly ''eight years'' without the owner of the cubicle noticing), he forgot what the original point was.
[[/folder]]

* In the tie-in [[http://officialbarokvanzieks.tumblr.com/post/155105683451/aj-anthology-brothers-standoff-1-translation manga]] to ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'', it's shown that [[spoiler:[[BigBad Kristoph]]]] did this to [[spoiler:his little brother, Klavier]].

"Gaslighting" has undergone a certain amount of lexical devaluation. Rather than meaning "subtly influencing another's perception of reality to cause self-doubt," it is also often used to refer to subtle deception in general, or even [[ImplausibleDeniability brazen dishonesty in the face of all evidence to the contrary]]. At worst, one party in a conflict [[RashomonStyle recalls events differently]] and accuses the other of "gaslighting" them even if no such malice is intended.

[[TropeNamers The name comes from]] the 1938 play ''Film/{{Gaslight}}'' (later adapted into two separate films of the same name), where a woman's abusive husband tries to manipulate her into believing she is going insane. It gets to the point where even the dim gas lights of their home make her question whether they actually are dim, or whether she has gone mad.