Why do so many school shooters follow eerily similar scripts—complete with manifestos, online trails, and glorified final acts?

To understand this phenomenon, we must turn to a surprising source: ethology, the biological study of behavior. In the 20th century, Nobel laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen (1963) showed that animal actions often follow fixed patterns, triggered by environmental releasers—specific cues that activate hardwired behaviors. A goose retrieving a displaced egg, or a stickleback attacking a red-bellied intruder, doesn't deliberate. It acts, scripted by evolution, primed by context.

This ethological logic also applies to human violence—particularly premeditated acts of symbolic aggression, such as school shootings. But human releasers are not just shapes or colors. They are symbols: images, ideologies, and emotional narratives that imprint deeply during vulnerable states.

In animal imprinting, young organisms bond with the first salient object or figure they encounter. In humans, symbolic imprinters can evolve into extreme overvalued beliefs (EOBs), emotionally charged convictions that become fused with identity. This usually occurs during periods of social or emotional vulnerability.

Many school shooters report—or are reported to have experienced—bullying, neglect, isolation, or public

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