We study a transcript of discourse recorded on an open mic during the mass suicide/murder of 909 members of a religious community in Jonestown in 1978. The 'Jonestown massacre' is often cited in psychology textbooks as a warning example of how powerful situations and charismatic leaders can lead ordinary people to extreme and destructive behaviours. These accounts suggest that individuals lose control of reason and will such that their behaviour becomes subject to outside control. We develop an alternative explanation of the mass killing as identity-based collective action. Our analysis shows how a shared understanding of the community's situation and the options available to them were constructed and contested in discourse. We demonstrate how Jim Jones served as impresario, entrepreneur and champion of identity, recognizing his followers' agency, initiating collective meaning-making and mobilizing action. Jones engaged his followers in jointly constructing the situation as hopeless, developing a shared view of their situated social identity and collectively formulating the identity-congruent solution of collective suicide as a hopeful act of collective agency. Our analysis points to the importance of addressing the conditions that sustain narratives of collective hopelessness and helping groups successfully choose non-extremist pathways out of hopelessness.

中文翻译：

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琼斯敦大规模杀戮中集体行动的领导和话语动员。


我们研究了 1978 年琼斯敦一个宗教社区的 909 名成员被大规模自杀/谋杀期间在开放式麦克风上录制的演讲记录。“琼斯敦大屠杀”经常在心理学教科书中被引用，作为一个警告例子，说明强大的情况和有魅力的领导者如何导致普通人做出极端和破坏性的行为。这些叙述表明，个人失去了对理性和意志的控制，以至于他们的行为受到外部控制。我们提出了另一种解释，将大规模杀戮解释为基于身份的集体行动。我们的分析显示了对社区状况和他们可用的选择的共同理解是如何在话语中构建和争论的。我们展示了 Jim Jones 如何担任经理、企业家和身份捍卫者，认识到他的追随者的能动性，发起集体意义创造和动员行动。琼斯让他的追随者共同构建了绝望的局面，对他们所处的社会身份形成了共同的看法，并共同制定了集体自杀的身份一致解决方案，作为集体能动性的有希望的行为。我们的分析指出，解决维持集体绝望叙事的条件并帮助群体成功选择非极端主义途径走出绝望的重要性。