A kidnapping or terrorist hostage identifies with and has sympathy for his or her captors on whom he or she is dependent for survival.

When hostages begin to empathize with their captors and turn against their rescuers. Named after a 1973 incident that occurred in Stockholm, Sweden, in which two suspects held four clerks hostage for 13 1 hours after an aborted robbery.When an assault team attempted to release them, the hostages shielded the suspects with their bodies. One hostage later married one of the suspects.

The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage, in which the hostage exhibits loyalty to the hostage-taker, in spite of the danger (or at least risk) in which the hostage has been placed. Stockholm syndrome is also sometimes discussed in reference to other situations with similar tensions, such as battered person syndrome, rape cases, child abuse cases, and bride kidnapping.