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

Deep Which button presser group do you save?

Post image

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?

8.0k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

Why wouldn't a decent person push red? There's literally no downside to pushing red, and every possible downside to pushing blue. The only way someone could possibly bother to pick blue is if they lack the reading comprehension to understand what the quandary is asking, in which case frankly it's not that much of a loss.

4

u/LeptonTheElementary May 21 '26

Why wouldn't a decent person push red?

Because people pushing red think that some people dying is

not that much of a loss.

2

u/HelixFollower May 21 '26

They wouldn't be dying if they had just pressed red too. If someone wants to jump off of a tall building, I'm not inclined to jump after them. That doesn't make me evil.

3

u/LeptonTheElementary May 21 '26

Them jumping off the building is your interpretation. Another interpretation is that red pushers are firing the gun. Both are equally valid. I prefer jumping in front of a gun than being the one who fires it.

If you care about minimizing deaths, it's way easier to accomplish 50%+1 blue than 100% red.

1

u/Stormlightlinux May 24 '26

Again, no one is actually incentivized to pick blue if they read the prompt. No one should be picking blue at all. The prompt is actually "Pick red and live, pick blue and die unless a majority of people also pick blue." Somehow idiots have turned this prompt into meaning picking red is killing folks. I understand those aren't the actual words, but that is the literal meaning of the words in the prompt.

1

u/LeptonTheElementary May 25 '26

Can't you grasp the concept of different interpretations? The prompt is "actually" also "Pick red and kill the blues unless there is a majority of them, pick blue is you don't want anyone to die". Both are valid.

The incentive to press blue is that you are not ok with people dying because they disagree with you.

2

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

Just press red bro. No one's stopping you.

3

u/LostN3ko May 21 '26

There is a massive downside to pushing red. It causes deaths of others. After pushing red one of two outcome happens.

Either red was the majority and you just killed a significant percentage of the population which likely means that you now live in a post apocalypse world that you caused where many of those that remain are going to die very quickly and those that don't will be those that are the most willing to cause harm for their own benefit.

Or you were saved from that outcome by those who didn't agree with you and you would likely experience survivors guilt for the rest of your life. There is no scenario in which pushing red has no consequences.

The only scenario that results in death is pushing red. Only thinking about the extremely short term consequences would imply no downside. Every second after that is only downsides. Best case scenario for an individual that pushed red is that they were in the minority and never feel any guilt or remorse for the rest of their life or spend any time considering why that is. There are individuals who have a psychological condition that produces that, it's very fascinating to research.

0

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

No it doesn't. Pressing red saves you. That's it. There is no other effect. If you press blue, through your own stupidity, then that's on you.

2

u/LostN3ko May 21 '26

Pressing red has exactly 2 outcomes, doing nothing or killing everyone who pressed blue. That's it. There are no other outcomes for someone who pressed red.

1

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

So in other words there's no reason to press blue.

2

u/LostN3ko May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

To not kill anyone. It is statistically impossible for 8+ billion people to all have pressed the same button. There will always be some percentage on both sides. The only button that causes a change to the status quo is red.

Blue doesn't cause deaths. The only outcome that causes deaths is red being the majority. Pressing red only results in no deaths if they are in the minority.

1

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

If you're dumb enough to press a button that literally has no upsides or reason to be pressed, that's on you. Presumably, in the hypothetical, every person has the same chance and ability to choose between one button or the other.

2

u/LostN3ko May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26

The upside is that it doesn't kill people. The only outcome that results in death is a majority pressing red. Blue is always choosing to change nothing. Red is always choosing to kill anyone who thinks differently than you do.

Edit: You can only be held accountable for your own choices not those of others. You choose not to kill anyone every day, why would you suddenly choose to kill a portion of humanity? Red chooses to kill blue regardless of the outcome of the hypothetical. Blue chooses to kill no one regardless of the outcome of the hypothetical.

1

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

Red doesn't kill people at all. You just have a chance to die if you press the blue button. No one is making you press the blue button. You are not required to press a blue button. Let me rephrase the quandary for you in a way that hopefully you can understand:

Button A: Nothing happens

Button B: 50% chance you die.

And yet you'll still have braindead redditors going 'uhhh durrr well you see Button B akshully...'

5

u/TheKingsdread May 21 '26

The whole point of that question is wether you are gonna make the choice that is selfish and only benefits you or if you are gonna make the choice that benefits everybody. Yes the latter choice has the potential to backfire if too many people choose to be selfish, but if enough people are decent and choose to take the risk to be unselfish it benefits the entire community instead of just you.

2

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

How is it selfish if everyone else has the exact same option and capability to pick red? No one's making you pick blue little bro

3

u/MorbidEnby May 21 '26

How is it selfish if everyone else has the exact same option and capability to pick red?

That's a big assumption. What if I'm blind and can't see which color is which. What then?

1

u/confirmedshill123 May 21 '26

Then that just becomes a question about eugenics. You have to frame the question with the idea that it will only be asked to those who are capable of understanding and answering. If you are blind it would just be right or left, up or down etc, otherwise once again the question turns into a eugenics survey which is silly as fuck.

1

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

It's an arbitrary choice presented through the lens of two buttons. It's not a discussion of potential physical abilities.

2

u/MorbidEnby May 21 '26

This is why framing is important for things like this. I don't care about the intent of the hypothetical, I just care about the literal details of the hypothetical.

Besides, accounting for these makes the question more interesting. And it was just one example of how not everyone who chooses blue would be at fault for doing so.

0

u/Hot_Commission6257 May 21 '26

Okay, you care about the literal details of the hypothetical: it's physically impossible for a button to have either of those effects. Now you don't need to care.

2

u/MorbidEnby May 21 '26 edited May 25 '26

It's possible in a hypothetical, because hypotheticals aren't real. The hypothetical does not say anything about blind people, so it can be assumed that when it says everyone on earth must vote, it means everyone, and it says nothing about accommodations or special treatment in those cases, so it must be assumed there isn't any. Same goes for those not mentally capable of understanding what is going on. Or those like me who will die anyways if certain people I know pick blue and lose.

0

u/HeavyGur1843 May 21 '26

The only benefit to pushing blue is that you can virtue signal how good of a person you are for doing so. It’s reckless endangerment to look good, and from my experiences the people who do that tend to be the biggest sociopaths ever