ABSTRACT
Peoples Temple offered material benefits and occupational opportunities to Jones’s followers, and for many people, once they became committed to the Temple, other options disappeared behind them. But it is just as evi-dent that those who stuck with Jones did so for reasons more compelling than simple economic calculation of the advantages and costs of staying. Sociologist Rosabeth Kanter has argued that successful communal groups are those that foster “total commitment” among their members. Beyond straightforward rational calculation, Kanter theorizes, there are two other central problems of commitment: (1) “social cohesion,” a feeling of strong group solidarity in contrast to outside social relationships, and (2) “social control,” a willingness to submit to collective authority as legitimate and binding on the actions of the individual.
