Review of a wide array of cognitive and behavioral phenomena involved in influencing shows the extensive enmeshment of non-argumentative influence and rational persuasion – often these are two sides of the same coin. Given this interwovenness, the traditional idea of diagnosing manipulation by reference to non-argumentative influence and in contrast to rational persuasion makes little sense. Complexes of non-argumentative-influence-cum-rational persuasion are often unremarkable instances of influence; yet when certain parameters of the influence gradually change, a threshold is reached where the act of influence starts being perceived as manipulation. Since there are many relevant parameters, which can interact in countless ways, it is the perception that constitutes the concept of manipulation. What is it that we perceive? We see influence through the metaphor of mechanification; this means that we see influencing another in the image of operating a machine. Manipulation is thus understood to be a conceptual metaphor. The idea of conceptual metaphor is explained, and the advantages of this construal of “manipulation” are discussed.