"The easiest way to defeat a manipulator is to stop reacting. Their power doesn't come from what they do—it comes from the response they're expecting."
I’m in 11A (window) on a six-hour cross-country flight. The woman in 11B asks me to swap for her aisle seat in the back of the plane. I decline, explaining I have a connecting flight and need to be up front, plus I prefer the window.
She smiles tightly. "Fine. But I have a very overactive bladder. Just so you know."
I figured she was exaggerating to scare me. She wasn't.
The exact moment the "fasten seatbelt" sign turns off, she stands up. "Excuse me, need to get out." I sigh, unbuckle, and step into the aisle.
She comes back five minutes later. I let her back in. Ten minutes pass. "Excuse me, need to go again."
This happened every fifteen to twenty minutes for the first three hours. It was mathematically impossible for someone to need the restroom that much. She was doing it entirely to punish me for not giving up the seat. She wouldn't just ask politely, either; she would tap my shoulder violently if my eyes were closed, forcing me to wake up.
On the seventh time, I decided to play her game. When she stood up, I stepped out into the aisle, but instead of going back to my seat, I went to the galley, grabbed a magazine, and just stood up there talking to the flight attendants for an hour. When I finally came back, she was stuck in the middle seat, furious that she couldn't execute her plan to keep waking me up.
When she realized her little psychological game was broken, she tried a new tactic.
....