The Strategic Use of Emotions in Recruitment Strategies of Armed Groups: The Case of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

What role do emotions play in recruitment strategies employed by armed groups? I argue that armed groups use “emotion work” – the effort to evoke or shape emotions – to recruit new fighters, trying to appeal not only to peoplès self-interest or reason but to their values and normative judgements. I use data from 30 interviews with former members of the LTTE to show that emotions were a central element of their recruitment strategy. To analyze the role of emotions in recruitment, I build on social movement theory and the sociology of emotions and propose an analytical framework linking different types of collective action frames with different emotions they provoke and the mechanisms through which they facilitate recruitment.