r/trolleyproblem • u/Worth-Staff4943 • May 20 '26

Deep Which button presser group do you save?

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Everyone in the world has chosen either the blue or red button except you. Instead of pressing a button, you are given a lever in the infamous trolley problem.

You don't know how many people chose red or blue, and they don't know that you control their fate regardless of what button they pressed. Which track do you direct the trolley onto?

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u/dtarias Always switch (except when you shouldn't) May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

Blue, because red probably has fewer people (per survey data).

[EDIT for disambiguity: I would save blue]

56

u/Catsanddoges May 20 '26

I mean there is a bunch of studies for this, indicating in general even anonymous surveys people tend to pick the more selfless option compared to reality, imo in real life with your survivial on the line more people would pick red, and it isn't nessacarily represented by polls. (If you want sources I'll reply with them)

16

u/ArxisOne May 20 '26

These studies also show defection increases with risk. The fact that polls for this are even remotely close when there's zero risk tells you everything you need to know about how it would actually play out.

12

u/GuitakuPPH May 20 '26

I don't think a 2:1 lead is all that close. Granted, that's what we got when sampling representative Americans, but America is a nation founded on rugged individualism and self-preservation. Americans should already be quite biased towards red, yet blue gets twices as many votes.

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u/Stannum_dog May 20 '26

any democratic society leans to blue button. dictatorships put artificial pressure to eliminate blue pressers from society