Have you ever felt like a social predator saw you coming? Like they were angling to find a way to bait or somehow con you into falling into an emotional, psychological, or social trap?
Baiting is the act of deliberately annoying or provoking someone to extreme emotion. When a person baits another, they are deliberately taunting in order to provoke a response from the offender’s attack.
It’s a common emotional abuse and psychological abuse ruse. Baiting, like fishing, is commonly done to bully preferred scapegoats and Narcissistic Abuse targets for fun and sport.
If you are a fisherman, it might be fun… but if you’re the fish — or worse… a worm squirming on a hook, being used to entice a predator to amuse? It’s simply not as much fun for people who are the victims of any form of bait and switch attack.
Pretending to ask for help with the intention of ridiculing or shaming a person who strives to assist is one of the most common bait-and-switch methods used by Covert Narcissists to keep themselves amused.
Once they spot a kind person who is only interested in trying to do the right thing for the right reason, the more narcissistic the Abuser, the more likely they are to perceive kindness as an opportunity for a predator to manipulate that person’s “weakness”.
Telling a gaslighting story to a listener in the hopes of tricking them into believing you, all with the intent to make fun of or to persecute the victim later? Bait and switch.
Advertising one product for sale at a great price, only to claim they are sold out is a form of commercial baiting. When a customer is lured into shopping at a store by clever marketing scam then offered a more costly substitution followed by a strong arm sales pitch, you know whoever came up with the scheme is a Dark Triad.
Think about the used car salesman who tells you on the phone they can sell you a specific car in stock or who lures you in with the promise of selling you a vehicle at a fantastic price. Anyone who supports the management team is likely to share similar ethics and values, willing to say or do anything to make a sale so they can score a commission with narcissistic vanity and sociopathic pride.
Or the dirty mechanic who knows a transmission in a used car is broken. They might have the car detailed on the exterior and in the interior surface deep cleaned to make it look like a real deal, but when you pay careful attention the mileage odometer already has been clandestinely rolled back, the dent from that last unreported accident and paint work hidden with no report ever made to car fax, the clutch is about to go, no one told you that in 10K more miles the timing belt is likely to give way, and the transmission that shifts a little clanky was packed with sawdust by him personally before your appointment time (covertly before your arrival).
Baiting can happen in a playful and teasing manner to enjoin friends and family in gay (meaning lighthearted and fun) or witty banter. But if the person who is the butt of the joke or who gets misled feels foolish, humiliated, attacked, or like they are not having any fun? That’s not good humor — it’s baiting as a method of playing a (metaphoric) psychological blood sport.
Most Cluster B people will readily admit that at times they love engaging in the act of baiting, hoping to manufacture emotional chaos for other people so they can derive sadistic pleasure from watching another human in distress while they themselves alleviate boredom.
Sadly, all Cluster B people tend to perceive social persecution of preferred scapegoat targets highly entertaining, be on the watch for any person or peer group who enjoys manipulating. They tend to love to play mean-spirited pranks, to constantly be looking for reasons to provoke a verbal or physical fight, and they tend to psychically traumatize victims they have truly humiliated fear other human beings and suffer from high social anxiety as a result of having been targeted.
If you or a person you know constantly feels like they are walking on eggshells, pay careful attention to an Abuser’s eyes. If they have a sociopathic stare and glint of sadistic pleasure when they abuse then claim either someone deserved to be attacked because they were naive, stupid, or foolish… then you know.
People with socially competitive personality types prone to tricking, manipulating, or deceiving others — especially for no other reason than to see if they can — are setting victims and collateral damage witnesses up for social abuse. Bottom line, people who bait others into engaging in a battle of wits only prove there’s no intel inside their own person bio-housing unit.
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