These people simply don't want to wish punishment in the afterlife upon the dead person. This is both bad and good. The bad: it's wishful thinking and not realistic about expected Judgment of the dead person's life. The good: they don't want to harshly judge or condemn the dead person so they themselves won't be condemned.

I am not surprised that the morality ratings were the only ratings to change. It seems like when people speak of the dead there is a sense of "at the end of the day he was a good person." I think we rate this basic "goodness" above any other trait in a life and death scenario. Other traits are valued but may only be seen as factors for getting ahead in life and the common good is what links us all when that life is over. It seems like a beleif in the afterlife strips a person of thier earthly achievments and highlights only thier fundamental goodness. Likewise, I think those who beleive in an afterlife also tend to believe more in redemtion. If a person did a few bad things and then got hit by a truck, who's to say he wouldn't have made up for those bad deeds next week? As long as we are still alive we have the capacity for positive change. When we are dead that chance goes away. People aren't comfortable making an assumption that a person would never change given the opportunity and perhaps feel it unfair to judge a person that is no longer in the game. Its like the blossoming quarterback with a torn ACL. Stories of how good he would have been given the chance, run rampent and the number of games he sucked in are no longer relavent. At least we are confident in the human potential and despite the bad-mouthing that goes on, our inability to speak poorly of the dead is an indication of a belief in the basic goodness of people. It may be wishful thinking but it sure beats the alternative.

Mortality is the one undeniable commonality amongst all of us, the great equalizer. Commonality especially on the topic of death seems to breed strong feelings of empathy/compassion. Sudden compassion or even pity might skew their ability to be "objective" when judging his morality/kindness versus traits such as intelligence or work-ethic as they are less "touchy-feely traits" and as we humans evolve, when all is said and done, and according to your obituary research we seem to value our own and others' morality/kindness more than other traits.

For the students who are God-fearing, they may feel it's God's duty to judge his morality now. This would fall under, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone". They don't want to cast anything as they are probably now feeling impish about their own moral shortcomings.

For the non God-fearing, but likely still death-fearing, it could be that they still hold the belief that kindness/morality is what matters in the end, and they're projecting their own regrets about not being a "better" person and their fears of being judged by others posthumously for any moral mis-haps. The other two "live" subjects still have a shot at redeeming themselves and thus don't "need" the students' boost in rating.

I bet it would be skewed in the opposite direction, though, had the man "commited suicide". Whether that would be looked at as a sin or not, it's usually seen as a selfish or ungrateful act, despite the suffering that no doubt came first. (Perhaps very compassionate people might still bump up his morality letter grade, I don't know).

Suicide would probably not be included in the "posthumous effect" at least according to my babble, because it negates the mortality-commonality argument as it's very hard for most people to empathize with people who commit suicide. Most of us treasure life or at least are too stupid to kill ourselves. My uncle was the most amazing man I've ever met and suffered badly from cancer and killed himself, and it was as though all of his wonderfulness went out with the same bang. It was unfair, but I was even guilty of judging him harshly. It's like you don't want to be associated with the "thought" of suicide or something. Self-preservation at it's best/worst...

As long as the dead person didn't have a choice about dying, then they would probably create the posthumous effect. While we can get angry at people who do stupid things that get themselves killed, ie, Heath Ledger, we still bump up their letter grade, but ONLY after determining it wasn't suicide. Notice the mad frenzy that follows drug overdoses to determine this? Probably so we can comfortably make the "right choice" in praising them or disassociating ourselves. Humans are wacked.

Thank you for your always thought-provoking posts and research.