London Syndrome

London syndrome refers to hostages’ argumentative and/or disobedient behavior which typically leads to their own demise. It is named after an incident in London in 1981 where the Iranian Embassy was seized by armed intruders; one of the hostages, Abbas Lavasani, was quite uncooperative and constantly argued with the gunmen. Lavasani’s belligerent behavior made the other captives more fearful as it increased the tension in the room. After six days of negotiation, the perpetrators became frustrated and they seemed to have taken it out on Lavasani. They killed him and threw his body out of the embassy.