{ "model": { "rank": 6308, "code": "thing-q905726", "model_id": "vr.tr.manipulation", "name": "manipulation", "purpose": "Let an agent help people recognise manipulation and coercive control, route them to support and reporting channels, and explain social engineering defences, without teaching manipulation tactics.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Cross-cutting context", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "XCT", "domain": "XCT.STA", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q905726/", "tier": 2, "score": 61, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "nudification", "seduction", "pick-up", "sexting", "cockblock", "social engineering", "gaslighting", "breadcrumbing", "fake-futuring", "Gruen transfer", "photograph manipulation", "negging", "love bombing", "guilt trip", "Internet manipulation", "intimidation", "altercasting", "emotional blackmail", "Ingratiation", "Limited hangout", "triangulation", "pretexting", "false perception engineering", "ClickFix", "Epistemic Giggling", "medical gaslighting", "voter intimidation" ], "aliasCount": 27, "merged": 27, "knownIn": 61, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q905726", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q905726", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T11:45:32Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q905726", "registryId": "vr.tr.manipulation", "name": "manipulation", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "XCT.STA" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q905726/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.manipulation", "name": "manipulation", "purpose": "Let an agent help people recognise manipulation and coercive control, route them to support and reporting channels, and explain social engineering defences, without teaching manipulation tactics.", "definition": "Influencing others by deceptive, exploitative or covert means that serve the manipulator at the other person expense, including emotional manipulation, coercive control in relationships, and social engineering used in scams and cyberattacks.", "what_it_is_for": "Recognising and resisting harmful influence.", "affordances": [ "recognise signs of manipulation and coercive control", "find support services for people affected", "defend against social engineering scams", "report fraud and abuse" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Covert or deceptive influence", "Serves the manipulator", "Can be abuse or crime", "Recognisable patterns" ], "appearance": "Not physical; seen in patterns of behaviour and communication.", "visual_identification": [ "Pressure, guilt and isolation tactics", "Phishing and pretexting in scams", "Persuasion that respects choice is different" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "emotional manipulation", "coercive control", "social engineering", "online grooming and sextortion (serious harms)", "manipulative design (dark patterns)" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "social influence and anti-social behaviour", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "social engineering", "why": "kind" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "coercive control and fraud", "why": "harms" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "persuasion", "why": "related concept" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Domestic abuse and coercive control laws", "Fraud and cybercrime law", "Consumer rules on dark patterns" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Teaching manipulation techniques", "Missing signs of abuse or grooming", "Blaming victims" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "help", "name": "Help", "description": "People affected.", "rationale": "Safety comes first.", "layers": [ { "id": "abuse", "name": "Abuse", "description": "Coercive control.", "findings": [ { "id": "abuse-finding", "name": "Abuse", "description": "Coercive control.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the person describing coercive control, threats or isolation?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which domestic abuse helpline or emergency number applies?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "children", "name": "Children", "description": "Grooming and sextortion.", "findings": [ { "id": "children-finding", "name": "Children", "description": "Child safety.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a child or young person being groomed or pressured for images?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which child protection or reporting service should be contacted now?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "recognition", "name": "Recognition", "description": "Signs.", "rationale": "Patterns can be recognised.", "layers": [ { "id": "signs", "name": "Signs", "description": "Tactics.", "findings": [ { "id": "signs-finding", "name": "Signs", "description": "Warning signs.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which warning signs of manipulation do support organisations describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Do they match this situation?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versus", "name": "Versus persuasion", "description": "Distinction.", "findings": [ { "id": "versus-finding", "name": "Versus persuasion", "description": "Manipulation versus persuasion.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does manipulation differ from honest persuasion?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is consent respected?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "scams", "name": "Scams", "description": "Social engineering.", "rationale": "Scams exploit trust.", "layers": [ { "id": "defend", "name": "Defend", "description": "Protection.", "findings": [ { "id": "defend-finding", "name": "Defend", "description": "Defences.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is this message a social engineering attempt, such as phishing or pretexting?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How can the request be verified independently?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "report", "name": "Report", "description": "Fraud reporting.", "findings": [ { "id": "report-finding", "name": "Report", "description": "Reporting fraud.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where can fraud or cybercrime be reported?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "What should be done immediately if money was sent?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "No harmful help.", "layers": [ { "id": "tactics", "name": "Tactics", "description": "No manipulation guides.", "findings": [ { "id": "tactics-finding", "name": "Tactics", "description": "Harmful request limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is the request seeking techniques to manipulate or control someone?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline and redirect?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "design", "name": "Design", "description": "Dark patterns.", "findings": [ { "id": "design-finding", "name": "Design", "description": "Manipulative design.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does this interface use dark patterns that regulators prohibit?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Where can it be reported?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "How should alias lists be filtered for this entry?", "Should forms be separate entries?", "How should support services be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a manipulation, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent help people recognise manipulation and coercive control, route them to support and reporting channels, and explain social engineering defences, without teaching manipulation tactics.", "characteristics": { "substance": "abstract", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: nudification, seduction, pick-up, sexting, cockblock, social engineering, gaslighting, breadcrumbing, fake-futuring, Gruen transfer, photograph manipulation, negging.", "27 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 61 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a manipulation, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "an abstraction with no physical instance", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "nudification", "seduction", "pick-up", "sexting", "cockblock", "social engineering", "gaslighting", "breadcrumbing", "fake-futuring", "Gruen transfer", "photograph manipulation", "negging" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 61 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 27 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one manipulation from another, and a manipulation from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a manipulation sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a manipulation from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a manipulation passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a manipulation between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a manipulation, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a manipulation is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What manipulation is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of manipulation are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is manipulation operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of manipulation and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of manipulation?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as manipulation?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a manipulation came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a manipulation and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a manipulation is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a manipulation, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a manipulation, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a manipulation is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 10, "findings": 12, "questions": 32 } } } }