There are other important forces at play. Liking them makes you want to comply with them and complying with them forces you to like them. The mind’s like, “I am complying with them, I must like them”. The key difference in Stockholm Syndrome is that the victims are forced to comply and, yet, positive feelings for the aggressors develop. The mind rationalizes helping the stranger as “I helped them, I must like them”. The effect states that we tend to like those whom we help, even if they’re complete strangers. The Ben Franklin effect may be, in part, responsible for Stockholm Syndrome. So Stockholm Syndrome is a stress response and a defense mechanism that the human mind uses to make the victims more compliant to the demands of their captors. If the victims don’t comply, their chances of ending up dead increase. The captors and abusers often demand compliance from their victims and compliance is more likely when you like someone. Stockholm Syndrome belongs to these categories of responses designed to increase the chances of survival in life-threatening situations such as kidnapping and abuse. One such trick is the freeze response, where the victim stays still so as to minimize resistance and discourage the aggressor from engaging in violence.Īnother response is the fright response where the victim plays dead, forcing the aggressor to overlook them (see Why people faint). The captor is too powerful and has chained you, for instance. But survival is of utmost importance and therefore, we’ve got more tricks up our sleeve. However, there are situations where none of these survival strategies can be implemented. We humans have a number of strategies to deal with such potentially life-threatening situations.įirst, there’s the obvious fight-or-flight response: Fight them or run away from them and save your life. There’s no doubt that forcible capture or abuse is a stressful experience that causes intense fear in the victims. It’s because victims in these situations sometimes show similar patterns of behavior. While the term Stockholm Syndrome was originally used in the context of this hostage situation, its use has extended to situations like kidnappings and abuse. Later, when the police did finally intervene and release them, the hostages defended their captors and refused to testify against them in court. They said their chances of survival would be greater if they were left alone with their captors without the authorities intervening. They said they felt safer with their captors. Within a few days, the victims developed positive feelings for their captors and urged the police not to take action. The term Stockholm Syndrome was first used after four people were taken hostage in a bank in Stockholm, Sweden in 1973. Some also empathize with the captors, refuse to testify against them in court, and even raise funds for their legal defense! Origins of the Stockholm Syndrome Stockholm Syndrome does not only makes victims like their captors. After all, common sense says that we should hate those who forcibly capture us and threaten us with violence, right? Stockholm Syndrome is an intriguing psychological phenomenon in which hostages develop positive feelings for their captors during captivity.
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