Read about the development and self-destruction of the community organized by XXXXX XXXXX known as “ Jonestown.” Jones was an extremely charismatic man who was able to use numerous techniques of social influence to his advantage. He was a minister who built a small following into a national organization of churches, called the Peoples Temple. Jones elicited a tremendous degree of commitment from his followers, to the point where they gave all of their money and property to him. When the government began questioning various financial aspects of the empire that Jones was building, he brought his congregation to the isolated reaches of Guyana, South America, where he established the community bearing his name. Eventually, a congressman from California flew to Jonestown to investigate reports of U.S. citizens being held against their will in this community, and he and several others were killed by Jones’s aides. Jones then explained to the members of the community that they would soon be under attack by outside forces, and that the only honorable solution for them would be to commit mass suicide. Most of the people there followed Jones’s orders and drank the poison Jones offered them (indeed, there were many instances in which parents gave their children the poison before taking it themselves), although some were killed by Jones’s assistants. More than 900 people died in this 1978 tragedy. When news of this tragedy spread, people around the world were shocked at the level of obedience shown by the hundreds of people who followed Jones.

There are a number of important social psychological points that can be made concerning the Jonestown tragedy: 

Discuss the various types of power that Jones was able to develop, and how he developed them.

Discuss examples of strong informational influence and normative influence in Jonestown.

Compare the isolation of Jonestown with the situation faced by participants in Sherif’s study concerning the autokinetic effect.

Examine how the processes underlying important compliance techniques, such as the foot-in-the-door technique and the norm of reciprocity, were influential in Jonestown.

Compare the authority of Jones with that of the experimenter in Milgram’s research.

Discuss how social impact theory could be used to explain what happened in Jonestown.

 

 

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