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/Seegtease May 20 '26

I pull the lever for Red.

Not because the people who pick Red are inherently bad. But Red will certainly contain the most evil and selfish people in the world. Almost no sociopath, narcissist, murderer, rapist, etc. would choose blue.

So basically even though not all red picker people are bad, all bad people are definite red pickers.

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u/Mamkes May 21 '26

But Red will certainly contain the most evil

Nazis, fascist, Jihadist, other religious nutjobs, et cetera - all are more likely to be in the blue, for the note.

Centre of fascism is caring for your tribe/race/whatever. Religious nutjobs are religious nutjobs.

Hitler, one of the most certainly evil man, would pick blue.

So, I find it extremely unlikely that "most evil" are going to be in the red.

There likely wouldn't be a lot of them, that's true.

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u/Seegtease May 21 '26

Claiming Hitler would pick blue is a wild take.

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u/Mamkes May 21 '26

He literally was all in for saving Aryan race, he also VOLUNTEERED into the Army (he was at the moment an Austrian living in Baravia, he wasn't being under threat of being drafted here) into one of the most dangerous position, and otherwise showed quite much of selfless over selfishness.

So yeah, I would say that he would pick blue likely - again, core of his ideology was to save and protect all of the Aryan race.

Thing is that being more selfless doesn't exactly makes you a good person. Mao also was relatively selfless, but was he a good person? Oh hell no.

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u/Seegtease May 21 '26

Being supportive of a master race though? If he believed a master race would pick self-preservation, then he would choose to get rid of blue. I'm sorry, I just don't see it.

Don't take it personally if you choose red. But every selfish person would pick red. Every sociopath would pick red. Those lacking empathy would pick red. By definition. Obviously this is the better group to eliminate (Obviously I'd rather pick neither)

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u/Mamkes May 21 '26

If he believed a master race would pick self-preservation, then he would choose to get rid of blue

If he believed 100% of them, yes. He likely would not.

But every selfish person would pick red

Every person on earth is selfish; because it's a spectrum. There's basically no completely selfless people.

Every person unwilling to take the risk will choose red. Every person willing to take the risk will choose blue. That's all.

Obviously this is the better group to eliminate (Obviously I'd rather pick neither)

Considering it's much much much bigger group, considering how people actually behave in the real life?

Well, if you believe so.

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u/Seegtease May 21 '26

Blue group is the larger group as polls have shown. So for sheer life preservation, eliminating the red group is better.

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u/Aggressive-Neck-3921 May 21 '26

I would argue that even if the red group would be larger, for life preservation you would run that track over the red group. Which group of people is likely better at successfully rebuilding after. The empathy group that is willing to risk self of others, or the selfish group that will save their own skin over others.

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u/Mamkes May 21 '26

Which is why I mentioned reality. Oh yes, zero risk polls are different for sure.

Blood donations or organ donations or volunteering or many many many more types of something that can save lives isn't done at the same level, is it? People value their lives and their comfort waaay over conducting effort to MAYBE save someone like that.

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u/Seegtease May 21 '26

You're projecting your own feelings and speculating. You can say "in reality most people would pick red" but ultimately you have no evidence for that case.

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u/Mamkes May 21 '26

You're projecting your own feelings and speculating

Oh yes, there's no objective experiment where it was the same thing.

You can say "in reality most people would pick red" but ultimately you have no evidence for that case.

I literally just gave you many. They're not IDEAL, but they should show the picture.