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would you chose 5 or 1

would you chose 5 or 1

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Originally posted by huckleberryhound
who am i to judge the value of this one guys life?
what if it was you beside me on the bridge? how would you agrue for your life?
I would beg you to kill me in order to save the life of those five strangers. My hope would be that you would let me live because you'd think that such a selfless person deserves to live.

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Well, that's it I'm afraid, but it really got me thinking. I don't think I could have pushed the guy off the bridge but my instinct would have been to switch the lines. As has been correctly pointed out, the two scenarios are essentially identical, so why did 75% of people asked agree to pushing the switch but only 25% say they'd push the guy? What makes one seem more instinctively a different choice (for some) from th other? Is it simply that in flicking the switch we are more detatched than actually physcally hurling someone to their deaths? If so, what ramifications does this have on other scenarios in life? It's commonly accepted that it's easier to shoot someone from 100 yards away (assuming you can shhoot straight) than to cut their throat while looking at them because you can better detatch them from being a person just the same as yourself. Does this explain other real life choices people make and how they chose to carry them out?

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Originally posted by belgianfreak
huge person
That's a crap euphemism for fat man.

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Originally posted by Nordlys
I would beg you to kill me in order to save the life of those five strangers. My hope would be that you would let me live because you'd think that such a selfless person deserves to live.
i could always push you off and steal your hat 😉

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Originally posted by Bowmann
That's a crap euphemism for fat man.
It could be a fat woman or a fat intersexed person.

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Originally posted by huckleberryhound
i could always push you off and steal your hat 😉
Hey, maybe the hat could stop the tram!

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Originally posted by Nordlys
It could be a fat woman or a fat intersexed person.
But it was neither.

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Originally posted by belgianfreak
Does this explain other real life choices people make and how they chose to carry them out?
Hardly.

(Examples don't follow as they're too obvious.)

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Originally posted by belgianfreak
Well, that's it I'm afraid, but it really got me thinking. I don't think I could have pushed the guy off the bridge but my instinct would have been to switch the lines. As has been correctly pointed out, the two scenarios are essentially identical, so why did 75% of people asked agree to pushing the switch but only 25% say they'd push the guy? What make ...[text shortened]... oes this explain other real life choices people make and how they chose to carry them out?
The examples are unrealistic. Those elements of reality which differentiate the two scenarios have been artificially removed by the question asker.

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Originally posted by Nordlys
It could be a fat woman or a fat intersexed person.
But...why does he have to be fat? If it's about size, why not a muscular person?

Nope, it had to be a fatso.

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Originally posted by AThousandYoung
The examples are unrealistic.
How so?

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Originally posted by Palynka
But...why does he have to be fat? If it's about size, why not a muscular person?

Nope, it had to be a fatso.
They can't push back.

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In the first one, you are either a hero or you make a mistake.

In the second, you are either a murderer or a bystander.

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Originally posted by Bowmann
How so?
You "know" that the fat man will land on the tracks and stop the train and the 5 people will therefore live when they otherwise definitely would not have...and it's 100% certain the fat man will be overpowered by you and not be able to defend himself...etc. The levels of certainty assumed are ridiculous.