The Mentality Map

The revival of religion and spirituality in contemporary China adds a new prominent dimension to the structure of social relations and social behavior in Chinese society. The social relations between Chinese non-believers and religious believers, as well as between different religious groups, have become one of the most important forms of social relations in contemporary Chinese society. This chapter brings together perceptions of social status and legitimacy with the BIAS map model and tries to construct a model of mentality map. Using the classical experiment paradigm of terror management theory, it explores similarities and differences in mentality maps between Chinese university students as non-believers and Christians in their evaluations of themselves and the other groups under two conditions: dental pain priming and mortality salience priming in secular and mortality priming contexts. This chapter finds a strong in-group favoritism and non-linear effects of mortality priming in group evaluations. It also shows the differentiation between religious groups as outgroup evaluation targets. This chapter aims to provide insights and inspiration for interfaith dialogues, religious tolerance, and religious governance.