We've asked some volunteers to imagine having to deliver two really bad pieces of news to a friend.

Do we need to start over?

Yeah, sorry about that, guys. Let me just turn this off.

To make the story memorable, we've asked them to imagine they've been pet sitting for that friend.

And due to a tragic accident, both Goldie and Bubbles passed away under their care.

Wait, what?

Don't worry.

It's just a thought experiment.

But yes, both of the fish died while you were looking after them.

Oh, that is horrible.

I would feel terrible if I did something like that.

Okay, but what would you prefer, in terms of delivering the news, would you want to do

like one bad piece of news on Monday?

You know, like, sorry about Goldie.

And then on Tuesday, Bubbles also didn't make it.

Or would you just, you know, rip the Band-Aid off and just tell them the bad news all at once on a phone call?

I'm going to go with the option, rip the Band-Aid off and tell all the news at one time.

Totally agree. Why prolong the pain? Everyone agrees. It's best to get all the bad at one time. Totally agree. Why prolong the pain?

Everyone agrees. It's best to get all the bad news over with in one go.

On the flip side, we ask them to imagine giving out joy all at once, versus in bite-sized pieces.

So this situation is a lot nicer. So imagine that you have a limited amount of money

to spend on a gift for your romantic partner, right? So you can afford to buy a dozen roses a year,

...