The Trolley Problem in Real Life
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a worthwhile real-world experiment whenever trolley problems or moral dilemmas come up.
What it is
Vsauce's Michael Stevens stages a realistic version of the trolley problem with unsuspecting subjects who believe they must decide a life-or-death outcome. The Mind Field episode compares what people say they would do with what they actually do.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2021 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Recommends wongarsu · 2021-02 · on “Hypothetical Judgment versus Real-Life Behavior in Trolley-Style Moral Dilemmas”
The youtube channel vsauce tried putting people in this situation by putting them in a fake railroad switching outpost and having the operator step out for a phonecall. They took care to educate the subject exactly on how the system works without them suspecting anything, trying to eliminate many of the factors you mention. The video is well worth a watch [this video]
Recommends Sceptique · 2022-07 · on “Absurd Trolley Problems”
They did this experiment in real life [this video] . It's not 100% perfect but it is still an amazing test.
Recommends Imustaskforhelp · 2026-04 · on “Sam Altman's home targeted in second attack”
> Perhaps something to think about in a scenario like this. Personally I think it's interesting that some people are so quick to condone aggressive attacks on powerful people, yet have no comment on those powerful people committing lower levels of violence against the masses. It's all social context. Can I just say that out of all of this discourse happening, this might be the most insightful yet succint position to explain my stance on all of this especially the "its all social context." line. I feel like many of us here might share an answer publicly but I have always believed that if I am in the shoes of someone else, I might act the way they do so in a sense I understand the human part o