Group Thinking and the Jonestown Holocaust

Group Thinking and the Jonestown Holocaust

Group thinking is a very common thing in businesses and decision-making teams. Groupthink is an "inclination where decision-making groups overpower opposing viewpoints in order to preserve group harmony." This is a psychological tendency to unintentionally increase uniformity by increasing the cohesion of a group and lowering tension between people. They do this so they can reach a decision faster. I also think of groupthink as a form of peer pressure where the leaders of the group try and force conformity on those whose viewpoints aren't the same as the rest of the group.

In the Jonestown Holocaust article, exposures to groupthink were evident throughout. In the beginning of the article, James Jones seemed like a normal, easy going, family man who was passionate about eliminating social injustices and improving interracial harmony within the context of a fundamentalist religion. Jones and his wife created an interracial family and spoke out on civil rights issues. After Jones "predicted" the nuclear war, he and his People's Temple followers migrated to California, and this is where things began to change.

The church began raising money and soon enough members were pressured into making contributions. The test of loyalty to the group soon became the willingness of members to assign all of their assets to the People's Temple. The church became in total control of the members life decisions. Jones lured people in with his wit and his social programs in the community, but once you were tangled up in his deceitfulness you were there for good. Jones got followers to believe what he wanted you to believe. He changed his religious theme from Christian to messianic, which is where his messages suggested that Jones was parallel to Christ. The people had to call Jones "Father". Jones did whatever he wanted knowing that his members would follow. As I was reading, it felt like Jones had some sort of spell on his members. Groupthink is a big chunk of why all these people stayed with him. He put fear in these people and gave consequences if you wanted to leave the movement. The people couldn't do anything to change it. Jones' manipulations of perceptions, of influences, and of interpersonal relationships provided ample bases for the member's conformity. The members of the Peoples Temple were subjected to pressures to conform to group norms defined by Jones, and with that the movement became very intolerant of any behavior that deviated from the group norms. Disagreement with Jones was an act of disloyalty.

Psychologist Irving Janis coined the term Groupthink. Janis once said Groupthink "occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to a deterioration of 'mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment.' Groups affected by groupthink ignore