And more importantly, people used in psychology experiments tend to be WEIRD – (Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic) – basically the way that people in the US and Europe behave is not always representative of people in general.
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Yeah, I’m sure if somebody asked me, “Hey, we’re going to give you a painful but non-lethal electric shock,” my first instinct would be, “Uh, no.”
But given time to think, I’d become more curious about how bad it is and whether I could take it (maybe it’s like spicy food, where somebody says “Man, that’s really painfully spicy, make sure you have lots of water on hand if you try it” and I try it, and it’s just got a pleasant zing). So, given a chance to think and overcome my instinctive “avoid pain” response, I’d be possibly willingly subject myself to it just for the experience.
It’s not about preferring that to being alone with my thoughts, it’s just if you leave me alone with my thoughts in a room with an “electrocute myself” machine, my thoughts are naturally going to center on the pros and cons of electrocuting myself.
(Okay, I lied, if somebody said “we want to give you some painful electrical shocks” I’d be interested from the get-go, so long as I was given certain assurances that they weren’t going to make me have a pants-ruining accident and I can bow out at any time…)
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Aye, clearly they didn’t invite people with kids into this study. 
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