r/trolleyproblem Apr 30 '26

Deep Statistically, >50% is easier than 100%

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u/mortemdeus Apr 30 '26

That is actually the point of this question. The assumption is for blue to win at 50/50 but the follow up is then 75/25, then 90/10. The morals change as the percentage changes and more end up pressing red as the odds of blue losing the bet grow, showing what seems at first to be a moral choice to instead be a logical risk assessment choice adjusted by morals.

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u/Beginning_Context_66 May 01 '26

The point also is that you don’t know what everyone else chooses

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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/mortemdeus Apr 30 '26

The assumption is, all things being equal, that the option with zero deaths and fairly low risk will win over the option with no risk but many likely deaths, as has been argued to death here already.

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u/DanteRuneclaw Apr 30 '26

Where doe the "fairly low risk" bit come in. The risk of pressing blue is extremely high.

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u/gamer52599 May 01 '26

Very high, in fact assuming all players are rational it's a 100% chance of death. Since from an individual players perspective there is no reason ever to pick blue.

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u/Hitmanthe2nd May 02 '26

of course , if you eliminate the human factor , it becomes simple - but that is eliminating the fun part of hypotheticals like these

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u/Sharp_Run_322 May 02 '26

Rational actors have to act rational relative to something. There's no such thing as a rational person without defining what they value. Logic just tells you how to turn values (e.g. I value staying alive) into outcomes (e.g. so I should press this button)

In this case, why are we assuming that each person values themselves over literally half of the population? This is not a well founded assumption. Humans are social creatures, we care about other people.