however , this tactic proved terribly ineffective , possibly because the rats could only infer from the suspiciously high-minded nature of this appeal that they were expected to do something unpleasant or harmful to themselves , to surrender themselves to the whims of the experimenter without any remuneration , and without any guarantee of material or physical gain ; inevitably this method of entreaty only impelled them to view experimental participation as engendering self-sacrifice for a cause they might not necessarily believe in : more specifically , that of human advancement .