This study examines whether there is a consistent pattern in terrorist hostage-taking and kidnapping. Script theory, developed in the discipline of cognitive psychology, explains that human behavior, whether brutal or benevolent, typically has a certain pattern to it because every human is programmed to some extent by learned experience; this experience, or script, can determine how an individual [hostage-taker/kidnapper] will respond to a particular stimulus or event [hostage-taking/kidnapping]. This study hypothesizes that script theory can be applied to cases of terrorist hostage-taking and kidnapping to determine the fate of a hostage - either to execute or to release. This study uses 764 cases of terrorist hostage-taking and kidnapping data originally collected by the Institute for the Study of Violent Groups (ISVG). Two hundred thirty four cases were finally selected for the analysis. Logistic regression method was used for the analysis.

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