Guess the genuine suicide notes

The 1957 book Clues to Suicide, edited by Edwin Shneidman and Norman Farberow, contains an unusual quiz in the appendix. It presents the reader with 33 pairs of suicide notes. In each pair one of the notes is genuine and one is "simulated." The reader is challenged to guess which is which.

The genuine notes were all obtained from the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office. The simulated notes were obtained from "nonsuicidal individuals contacted in labor unions, fraternal groups, and the general community." The individuals were told that by writing the notes they were helping with a scientific study on suicide prevention.

Furthermore, all the note writers (of both the genuine and simulated notes) were "male, Caucasian, Protestant, native-born, and between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-nine."

The authors suggest taking the quiz before reading their book (but not looking at the answers), and then re-taking the quiz after reading it in order to determine if the book has provided "greater perspicacity."

I've pasted three sample pairs below, but I also made a pdf of the entire quiz (with the answer key at the end).

Or you can find the quiz in the book itself which is available to read at the Internet Archive.







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