When even a slight movement might invite a blow from an angry hijacker, the hostage's mind plans strategies, remembers loved ones, builds up hopes and tries to counter despair. Families Special challenges face families who are kidnapped together - like the German tourist Werner Gunter Kort, who was seized by the Abu Sayyaf group with his wife and son. It is easier to face the trials of captivity with your loved ones, but for parents there is always the fear that their children might become a target for violence. And for children, the psychological effects can be more acute if they see their parents suffer. A child who sees a parent beaten or reduced to a state of abject fear has the vital childhood myth of an invincible mother or father who protects them from the world shattered.
Some hostages start to feel sympathy for their captors, and even support their cause.
This is known as the Stockholm Syndrome, following a bank siege there in 1973, in which the hostages sided with the robbers and resisted rescue. One of the hostages eventually became engaged to one of the captors. But psychologists suggest that the Stockholm Syndrome is the exception rather than the rule. More important are the group dynamics among the hostages themselves - and among the kidnappers. Prejudice, considerateness and humanity can come out just as much during a siege as in everyday life.