we believe in ghosts

or, so a new study says. in this experiment, people rated dead people higher on moral values than the living. psychologist jesse bering gives this explanation:

“It’s like we want to remind these people who’ve died how good and nice they are, so they won’t hurt us,” Bering said. “None of this is conscious, of course, but it doesn’t have to be, so long as it works in nature.”

the article also details an experiment in which subjects are more honest when they're told the ghost of the graduate student who created the test was spotted in the room before. this presumably leads back to the earlier conclusion that humans are concerned with the ramifications of offending the dead.

so, according to the results of these experiments, we have a subconscious belief in the supernatural, even when we avow that we do not. we believe the dead can come back from beyond and punish us, or at least witness and disapprove of our behaviors, which sounds pretty far out. although this may be the case, it doesn't seem like the only explanation available. bering is missing the more nostalgic aspects of human nature. in the first experiment, it could be we're also more inclined to view the dearly departed favorably because we're no longer competing with them for resources. contra to the above hypothesis, we may actually no longer see them as a threat as rivals, and are therefore free to be less hostile and critical.

in the latter experiment, the mention of the graduate student's ghost could keep thoughts of the good, honest, wonderful, etc. graduate student at the forefront of participants' minds more often and just guilt them into being more honest...