Jonestown The first concept that relates to Jonestown and the massacre is the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. This theory is all about how there are perceived inconsistencies between two cognitions. Simply, this can mean that our actions and attitudes do not coincide with each other. The Cognitive Dissonance Theory can be applied to Jonestown when the Temple members thought that moving the congregation to Guyana would be the right move and they would be able to have a so called paradise. Members may have believed this, but also, they were thinking that this was possibly a bad idea because there was a lot of unflattering media attention and more investigations were taking place. These two thoughts caused tension psychologically and it became…show more content… Obedience is the next concept that can be applied to the Jonestown massacre. Obedience can be explained as following explicit instructions given by someone in authority. This is exactly what happened when Jones exposed his cult members to the “final ritual,” which was the mass suicide. Trials of this ritual were to test the followers and their allegiance to Jones. Once the members were comfortable with the trials of mass suicide, it became an easier task for them to go through with real thing. Members obeyed Jones’ orders because they believed that he was highest in authority and that meant they would obey him the…show more content… The Informational Social Influence is when people accept others’ opinions as reality, assuming that what they are saying is factual and accurate. Jim Jones was that person who the members accepted his opinion for reality. When Jones said that they would move to Guyana and build a social utopia, his members believed this. They accepted that it could be reality and nothing bad was going to happen even though this was not likely to happen. Along with this, the Temple members also showed Normative Social Influence. The Normative Social Influence is when people conform because they want to avoid rejection and gain acceptance to the group. This was evident in Jonestown when new people willingly obeyed Jim Jones demands because they wanted to be an accepted member of the cult. They made decisions that they normally would not have because they did not want to get rejected by the people around
