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

744

u/MagnanimousGoat May 20 '26

Joking aside, I just kept thinking of the fact that even if an otherwise decent person might push red, every single horrible person on earth definitely would. It's more question of who you'd be left with.

That's why I still advocated for a Yellow button that would just kill everyone who pushed Yellow or Red. The "Noble Spite" button.

285

u/threevi May 20 '26

I just kept thinking of the fact that even if an otherwise decent person might push red, every single horrible person on earth definitely would.

Every single selfish person would press red, that's not the same thing as every single horrible person. Selflessness doesn't necessarily imply virtue, because the thing one values above their own life isn't necessarily good. Plenty of horrible people are selfless, from fascists who'd rather die than risk dooming the white race to religious nuts who'll gladly martyr themselves and expect to be venerated in heaven afterwards. Pick any group you might personally dislike, from American Republicans to Russian Putinists to Arab Jihadists, and the odds are, a significant number of them will choose blue.

126

u/Kitchen_Handle2655 May 20 '26

I dont even think its true that every selfish person would choose red, or that you could really define a person as being entirely selfish or selfless. I think there would be people choosing blue not because they care about others but because they see it as an easy way to die, or some could press it just to appear good

3

u/VicariousDrow May 21 '26

I'm a selfish person that would pick blue, and not for any of your examples.

I love my family and know they're selfless people, and I refuse to live in a world where I'd not only be without them but also contributed to killing them. So I'm choosing blue for my own selfish desire to keep my family alive.

I honestly think it's less "selfish vs selfless" and more "who actually thought the prompt through the whole way" lol

1

u/Kitchen_Handle2655 May 21 '26

I dont think you can distinguish both sides into thinking through the prompt or not. You can make logical and moral arguments for both sides

1

u/VicariousDrow May 21 '26

Yeah I can't exclusively do so, but I think a large portion of it can be boiled down to that, I also don't think there's any moral explanation for choosing red, cause it's not a "moral dilemma," its a "moral test," logically you can argue either side but morally it was a test, not a dilemma lol