A passive defense against manipulation is most beneficial: You do nothing, say nothing. The ONLY thing you are required to do is to smile slightly and look stubbornly into the eyes of the manipulator. 😳 Imagine now how much stress the manipulator can feel while waiting for a response to his "move". However, it is not easy for the addressee to keep the pause, either. It requires a lot of restraint (mental counting: "one, two, three, four..." very slowly).