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... > social science subjects > business and management > leadership (business) > cross-cultural leadership > leadership (religious) > jonestown mass suicide
... > social science subjects > business and management > leadership (business) > process approach to leadership > situational leadership > cross-cultural leadership > leadership (religious) > jonestown mass suicide
social science subjects > business and management > leadership (business) > leadership (religious) > jonestown mass suicide

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jonestown mass suicide  

Definition

  • In 1978, the world was shocked to learn of the mass suicide of virtually all of the members of a small, obscure church called the “People's Temple.” More than nine hundred people took their lives in the church's compound in Guyana, South America, drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid at the order of the church's founder and leader, the Rev. Jim Jones. The phenomenon of mass suicide is extremely rare in human history, probably because the selfpreservation instinct is the most basic of all human motives, and overcoming it for a large group of people at the same time is extraordinarily difficult. [Source: Encyclopedia of Leadership; Jonestown Mass Suicide]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/jonestown_mass_suicide

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