Unpacking How Gaslighting Works. (It's Them, Not You.)

Trust nothing?

A new model by psychologists at McGill and the University of Toronto explains gaslighting as a process that exploits trust and surprise to reshape how targets perceive reality.

By behaving in unexpected ways and then blaming the victim’s “grip on reality,” gaslighters slowly make their targets feel epistemically incompetent. The study suggests anyone could fall prey if they trust the wrong person — not just those with particular vulnerabilities.

“In our model there’s not necessarily anything specific about the target of gaslighting that makes them particularly vulnerable to it. In essence, it could happen to anyone, so long as they’re trusting the wrong person.”

— Willis Klein, PhD Candidate

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