Terror Management in Childhood: Does Death Conceptualization Moderate the Effects of Mortality Salience on Acceptance of Similar and Different Others?

Abstract

This study inquires whether terror management mechanisms depend on the development of the concept of death. Children aged 7 and 11 years (N = 104) were exposed to death salient or non-salient conditions and asked to rate their acceptance of in-group and out-group children. Death salience was manipulated by asking children to answer the Death Concept Scale before or after rating target stimuli. Children also answered a self-esteem scale, and their mothers completed a dogmatism scale. Death salience led to more acceptance of an in-group child and more rejection of an out-group child only among 11-year-old children. Among 7-year-old children, this manipulation led to a rejection of both in-group and out-group children. At both ages, these effects were mainly found among low self-esteem children and among children whose mothers scored high on the dogmatism scale. Results were discussed in the framework of terror management theory.