“…The current protocol in hostage negotiation aims to prevent any face to face interaction and primarily relies on verbal communication through landlines (Cooper & Freiner, 2010;Dolnik & Pilch, 2003;McClain et al, 2006). This protocol severely handicaps negotiators as it removes face to face interaction, a pillar in trust building, and only opens up a single channel of communication (Bekmeier-Fueurhah & Eichenlaub, 2010).…”