Does depression enhance analytical rumination?
Again, the evidence is very, very weak. The authors cite only one “pertinent mood induction experiment”, which may not be relevant at all. In this experiment participants (finance and economics students) were offered the chance to buy and sell German marks and Swiss francs (this was before the Euro in Germany), and were given historical information about markets that could help them with their decision. Success was judged by how much profit was made. The authors of this study (Au et al. 2003) supposedly created depression-istic conditions in the participants in this way: Mood was manipulated by providing participants with false feedback on the first round. In the positive mood induction, participants received a high profit for their decision, regardless of what they actually did. In the sad mood induction, participants took a substantial loss. In the neutral mood induction, participants broke even. For all subsequent rounds, participants’ payoffs were determined by their actual decisio
