Psychopaths are known for their manipulative behavior. They often manipulate the truth by telling lies to other people in order to get a particular response out of them. They are able to do this through gaslighting. Perhaps the psychopath did something terrible and they are trying to cover it up by telling lies. That way, no one will suspect they did anything wrong. But often times the gaslighting is directed specifically at one particular individual. Psychopaths use gaslighting the most on other family members, such as their spouse or children, in order to achieve some greater goal they set out to make themselves look a certain way in the eyes of others.

Psychopaths choose their victims carefully. Even though their children are the most susceptible to the cruelty, the victim has to be someone with few allies and few people who believe in them. For example, if a child were to be a loner in school and isolated from the rest of their peers, this would make them the prime candidate for gaslighting by their parents or some other adult in their life. Isolated children have no one else around that can witness the gaslighting being done to them, which makes it easier for the abuser to get away with it. Now-a-days when you look at the increasing popularity of homeschooling and social isolation through the growing use of the internet, more children are becoming isolated as a result. This means that a psychopathic parent would have a much easier time gaslighting their children than they would have before the technological age we live in now.

When it comes to psychopaths' gaslighting other adults it can get more challenging because adults have the means to meet more people. Psychopaths will generally target their partner or spouse since they have more control over them. A spouse who is in love with their psychopathic partner will be more receptive to the lies they are being told because they trust their partner Signs of gaslighting parents  want to believe in them. This gives the psychopathic partner a huge advantage to pull off their gaslighting technique because all it takes is a few sentences without having to prove themselves much. What's worse is the victim will often stick up for their partner around others because of their love for them. This causes other people to see the psychopath in the same limelight as their partner does, which only further enhances the success of the abuser.