The Jonestown Incident as Collective Action: How Exceptionally Difficult Collective Decisions are Accomplished

• In Event: 106 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Disruptive Social Movements

Abstract

Studies of collective action that analyze recorded audio of organizational proceedings are rare, as are studies of collective suicide as a form of organized political resistance. I address these gaps by examining audio recordings of the final meeting of the Peoples Temple, which tragically resulted in approximately 900 followers of Jim Jones terminating their lives by ingesting cyanide. A common assumption in most social movement studies has been that organized collective action entails risk, whether that risk consists of legal or extralegal repression, physical intimidation, or even death. Research shows that where risks are extreme, such as when activism invites potential death, organizers can motivate rank-and-file members by framing death in action as honorable. I extend this work by examining how groups can carry out the acts of collective suicide and filicide—or the killing of one’s own children. While scholarly and popular perspectives on the Peoples Temple incident have focused on coercion or collective delusion as key explanatory factors, analysis of the group’s final meeting shows that members deliberated and achieved consensus through interaction before undertaking their final act. While Jones’s persuasive abilities provided impetus for action completion, the result could not have been accomplished absent prior consolidation of group consensus surrounding collective suicide and filicide. This study provides evidence that interactive deliberation and consensus building are essential organizational activities prior to undertaking extreme forms of collective action.

Author

• Robert William Mowry, University of Notre Dame