I hope this is the right spot for my query. I read a book which was a collection of short sci-fi stories, maybe thirty or forty years ago, but perhaps it stuck in other people's heads the way it stuck in mine.
This story told of a board game which became more and more popular. Nobody knew where it came from. The idea was that the way to win was to give everything you had away until you had nothing left. Then you would be congratulated, feted, and generally considered a wonderful person. The game swept the globe - everyone was playing it. The elation, the joy of giving everything away was incomparable.
An alien space ship appeared. In a frenzy, primed and inspired by years of playing the game, people gladly handed the planet over to the aliens. Earth was relinquished, and the population patted themselves on their backs.
The last paragraph was the aliens laughing to themselves - they'd invented the game and seeded it on Earth in order to achieve domination without firing a shot
Then more recently I have been reading about suicidal empathy - this is what this story was about (although the phrase is recent) and I think it was predicted all those years ago.
It's weird what comes to mind at night when you can't sleep. Does anyone remember the name of the book, please?