How can you tell if someone is guilt tripping?

Guilt-tripping is a tactic used by some people to manipulate someone else into guilt.  They can have a variety of reasons for doing this and different tactics in going about this.  One way of guilt-tripping someone that is pretty common is by repeating oneself repeatedly and telling you to get the desired result.  By repeating themselves, they hope that eventually, the person will feel guilty enough to do whatever they are repeating.  For example, if I ask you to buy me a gift and do not receive one, I might decide to guilt trip someone into getting me a gift by asking them over and over again.  Eventually, someone might feel guilty enough that they have not bought me the gift to go ahead and do it out of guilt and probably get me to stop asking. 

Another tactic people can use when guilt-tripping someone is to manipulate others to make themselves look better.  If the guilt tripper can deceivingly make themselves look better, that can lead to the other person feeling guilty because they are less than.  Using the same example of gift-giving, if I do not receive a gift after asking for it and then explain that I give them lots of gifts, the person might feel guilty about that even if that is not true.  That guilt can then lead them to go ahead and give me a gift because I have manipulated them to think that I deserve it, and they are less than as long as they do not give me a gift. 

Guilt trippers are definitely focused on manipulation, and another form of manipulation is to not pick up on someone else’s efforts and even make joking remarks about their efforts.  The person will feel like they do not do enough and will feel guilty enough to do more.  In this form of guilt-tripping, the guilt tripper is intentionally not picking up on what someone else is doing.  For example, using the gift example, if you actually gave me gifts before, I would not bring attention to that and even make jokes about the contrary to make you feel guilty.