Abstract: Kidnappings of soldiers, journalists, aid workers, and other civilians by armed groups happen every day, yet the politics of hostage recovery remains understudied. We develop an original theory about hostage deservingness that investigates how hostages’ personal responsibility for their own capture shapes public opinion and elite decision-making. We also examine the influence of traditional principles associated with hostage recovery and the costs of recovery. Our multi-method approach includes the use of survey experiments embedded in large national surveys of Americans and 22 interviews with current and former senior hostage recovery personnel. Across our experiments, we find that when capture occurs under circumstances that suggest the hostage bears responsibility, support for recovery decreases, especially when costs are high. We further demonstrate that policymakers are similarly susceptible to notions of deservingness, which affects all parts of the recovery process: internal debate among policymakers, operational decisions, and messaging to the public.
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