London Syndrome

London syndrome is a hypothesized pattern in which a hostage provokes hostility from captors by resisting, arguing with, or otherwise refusing to cooperate with them, framed as a contrast to the bonding described by Stockholm syndrome. The term derives from the 1980 Iranian embassy siege in London. Unlike Stockholm syndrome, London syndrome has little research behind it: it rests on this single cited incident, carries no supporting studies or prevalence data, and is best described as a conjectured label applied by observers rather than a documented clinical phenomenon.