The other volunteers, by contrast, managed a much more enthusiastic performance, with a 90 per cent success rate.
Does this actually prove much beyond the commonsense explanation that the subjects who had been foretold sad lives were too preoccupied by sad ruminations to get up much interest in a parlour game ? But isnt this experiment claimed to "prove" that people are so selfish that they would step over a starving child to get to a tray of cookies to cheer themselves up if they are feeling a bit sorry for themselves?! BUT, see the following paragraphs for the supplementary questionnaires to discount this possibility.
