title: A pilot study of naturally occurring high-probability request sequences in hostage negotiations.
abstract: In the current study, the audiotapes from three hostage-taking situations were analyzed. Hostage negotiator requests to the hostage taker were characterized as either high or low probability. The results suggested that hostage-taker compliance to a hostage negotiator's low-probability request was more likely when a series of complied-with high-probability requests preceded the low-probability request. However, two of the three hostage-taking situations ended violently; therefore, the implications of the high-probability request sequence for hostage-taking situations should be assessed in future research.
authors: York Central Hospital, Ontario, Canada. behaviour.mgmt@bellnet.ca
authors: James
authors: J
authors: Hughes
mesh_terms: D057237:Criminals / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D017008:Negotiating / Q000379:methods*; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011329:Prisoners; D011336:Probability; D013637:Tape Recording; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology