Gaslighting
煤气灯效应
Gaslighting is psychological manipulation, usually over a long period, that leads a person to question their own thoughts, perception of reality or memories. Sociologist Paige Sweet describes it as efforts to make a partner seem or feel “crazy.”[1][2]
On the left, a gas lamp whose flame dims and brightens, with the note “The light dims, and she is told she imagined it.” On the right, a timeline with five points: 1938, the play Gas Light; 1944, the film Gaslight; 1969, a Lancet paper by Barton and Whitehead, thought to have coined the term according to Sweet; 2019, Sweet’s sociological study interviewing 43 women in domestic-violence support groups; 2022, Merriam-Webster’s word of the year after lookups rose 1,740%.
Save as image (PNG) Key points
- The term comes from the 1938 play Gas Light and its 1944 film version, in which a husband dims the gaslights and insists his wife is imagining it.[1][2]
- Merriam-Webster named it the 2022 word of the year after lookups on its site rose 1,740% over the year before.[2]
- Interviewing 43 women in domestic-violence support groups, Sweet argued that gaslighting draws on gender stereotypes and unequal power, not just a two-person psychological dynamic.[1]
- Robin Stern’s popular book treats it as emotional control that both partners take part in; Sweet criticizes such accounts for ignoring structural power differences.[1][3]
An example
Lin remembers her boyfriend agreeing to join her family for dinner on the weekend. On Saturday he says, “I never said that. Your memory is terrible.” After this happens again and again, Lin starts saving screenshots of their chats and increasingly wonders whether something is wrong with her.
Misreadings and limits
Since the word took off, it is often used for any disagreement or lie. In the dictionary and research sense it means sustained, repeated efforts to make someone doubt their grip on reality, usually in an unequal relationship, and researchers treat it as a form of psychological abuse.[1][2]
Sources
- 1 Sweet, P. L. (2019). The sociology of gaslighting. American Sociological Review, 84(5), 851–875. doi:10.1177/0003122419874843
- 2 Italie, L. (2022). Merriam-Webster chooses 'gaslighting' as its word of the year for 2022. Associated Press (via BreakingNews.ie, November 28, 2022). View source
- 3 斯特恩, R.（Stern, R.） (2022). 《煤气灯效应：如何认清并摆脱别人对你生活的隐性控制》引言节选. 澎湃新闻·湃客（转自“社会学吧”）. View source
Last checked against sources: October 26, 2026