Quick Morality Quiz From Time Magazine

[ATB]

This should spark some interesting discussion me thinks.

My answers are in the spoiler box below.

Spoiler for Hiden:

No
Yes
Yes
No
No

[PaulBot]

1. Not sure. Hopefully I could.
2. Maybe
3a. Definitely could throw the switch
3b. Don't know
3c. Most likely yes
 

[whiteboyskim]

This quiz is obviously not for Rambo. For instance, where is the option in the first question to kill all the enemy soldiers, radio a chopper, then hang on to the rope one-handed while you hold the baby in the other as you both are air-lifted to safety?

Pfft.

[denoginizer]

I have been tempted to smother crying children without soldiers searching for me. 

[CeeKay]

the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, the one.

unless I'm the one, or amongst the few, the screw y'all.

[Lee]

These kind of quizs really don't mean much. In the reality of the situation your thinking would be much different than how it is to just be sitting here in front of a screen. You can say you would smoother the baby all you want, but if it really came down to it, I don't think any of us would know how we would react.

I was hoping for much more of an interesting quiz coming from ATB. Abortion, capital punishment issues or something juicy.

[Kevin Grey]

These kind of quizs really don't mean much. In the reality of the situation your thinking would be much different than how it is to just be sitting here in front of a screen. You can say you would smoother the baby all you want, but if it really came down to it, I don't think any of us would know how we would react.

+1 - quiz is pointless IMO because of exactly that. 

[CSL]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. No
4. No

[PaulBot]

Look at all you guys who are CHICKEN to post your answers! cluck cluck cluck.

[Lee]

Look at all you guys who are CHICKEN to post your answers! cluck cluck cluck.

No
No
No
Yes
Fuck off this is stupid

[Lee]

You know the most interesting part of this thread is that a pro-lifer admits he would be willing to kill people. This should spark some interesting discussion me thinks.

[ATB]

You know the most interesting part of this thread is that a pro-lifer admits he would be willing to kill people. This should spark some interesting discussion me thinks.

Well where it is?

[CrayolaSmoker]

Yes - but I'd have nightmares and be racked with guilt the rest of my life.
Yes - Though if he really is "already dead guy," I'm betting we could wait the 30-60 minutes, then just dump him afterwards.
Yes - Again, I wouldn't feel good about it later.
No - Five dumbasses on train tracks should be paying more attention.
No - See above.

The thing I find most interesting is the difference between the first two questions and the last three - i.e. when your life is on the line as well. Provokes very different responses.

To people that answer No to question 1 and Yes to question 2, what is the difference? Is it the child? Is it the injury? If, in question 1, the person you needed to smother was an infirm elderly woman who'd snapped and wouldn't stop yelling, would your answer be the same?

[CeeKay]

does the catapult make cartoon noises for comedic effect?

[CeeKay]

No - Five dumbasses on train tracks should be paying more attention.

but what if they are rich dumbasses?  if they are, then the reward could be, well, more that you can imagine!

[Purge]

No; there's no reason why you would do this. A child can be silenced without going all Altair on it.I don't care if it's a gag in it's mouth.
No. How about one person hopping out of the boat and assuming the HELP position and take turns?
That is stupid. I'd save the many if there was cost of life.

[Kev199]

You may think it is stupid until that situation happens to you.


I am sure TIME polled its readers and came up with the most common situations they faced.

[jpk]

Radio Lab must have interviewed the same scientists, since I heard these questions on their podcast before. They go into some detail about what this means about different "agents" competing in your mind as to what you'll ultimately decide. It's a good show.

Link: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/

[CeeKay]

No. How about one person hopping out of the boat and assuming the HELP position and take turns?

but what if the water is filled with angry mutated sea bass?

[Ridah]

Well one thing is certain, regardless of how I think I would react in any of those situations I would without a doubt shit my pants.

[PaulBot]

Well one thing is certain, regardless of how I think I would react in any of those situations I would without a doubt shit my pants.

I volunteer to jump out of the life raft! 

[IkeVandergraaf]

1.  Yes, I could smother the child.  I believe I could smother a crying child even in the absence of the other circumstances.  I do not like crying children.
2.  I could throw the person overboard.  But I would not taunt the person.
3.  I could kill the one person to save five.  Unless one of the five was Hitler.

What do I win?

[PaulBot]

What do I win?

Someone from the government will be contacting you with your prize. You have won an all expenses paid trip up the river for 3-5 years.

[Farscry]

These kind of quizs really don't mean much. In the reality of the situation your thinking would be much different than how it is to just be sitting here in front of a screen. You can say you would smoother the baby all you want, but if it really came down to it, I don't think any of us would know how we would react.

+1 - quiz is pointless IMO because of exactly that. 

I agree to a degree.

However, as a philosophical kind of thing, I like the quiz, and found some of my answers to surprise myself, me being a near-pacifist.

I voted:

Yes
Yes
No
No
No

Those last three were harder to answer than the first two.

In the first two instances, either everyone will die, or one will die and save the lives of the rest. In that case, since the person I would have to kill would die even if I do nothing, but killing them (or leaving them to die) will save the others, then it would be a choice I would be willing to make.

In the final three, however, I would be killing a person who, if I did nothing, would not be killed. I'm not so willing to alter reality that way, basically choosing someone to die in the place of others who would in their stead.

[unbreakable]

Only in #2 would I take action, since the person in question was already certain to die.  I'm not even certain about that case, either- how is his imminent death certain?

I'm wondering what kind of goofy train yard we are talking about in the examples.  I've seen many train yards, but none of them featured a catapult...

[CeeKay]

1.  Yes, I could smother the child.  I believe I could smother a crying child even in the absence of the other circumstances.  I do not like crying children.
2.  I could throw the person overboard.  But I would not taunt the person.
3.  I could kill the one person to save five.  Unless one of the five was Hitler.

What do I win?

you get to be asslaminated!

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I am sure TIME polled its readers and came up with the most common situations they faced.

Yes, I'm sure that these situations happen to people all of the time.

[CeeKay]

I am sure TIME polled its readers and came up with the most common situations they faced.

Yes, I'm sure that these situations happen to people all of the time.

I ran into the catapult one just the other day.

[Knightshade Dragon]

Wow, don't I look like a sociopath. 

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
What?!

[Toe]

Yes. What is more gross than a dead baby? A room full of dead people with a dead baby.
Yes. Unless one of the other people looked like Lenardo De'Caprio.
No, just so I could tell the single man that lived "Earn this" ala Saving Private Ryan. He would then become a better person that all the 5 dead people combined.
See above
Yes, but only if he failed to answer three questions first...what's your name?...what's your quest...

[javahead]

Very lame quiz.

Yes -- that infant has no chance without parents
Yes -- mortally wounded man had better have the balls to jump off, but if I have to, I'd toss him over
Yes -- but would I have the reflexes to do it?
No
No

But in all 3 latter cases can't I just yell at people to GTFO? What happens to the trolley if it takes a sharp turn, are there people on it? Are any of the 5 hot women? What if the trolley flips over, jumps off the tracks, and takes out the 5 anyway?

[CeeKay]

wow, I've never seen so many people morally opposed to a catapulting!

[unbreakable]

After further consideration, I think I would catapult the guy.  Just to say I did.

[Kratz]

That is the dumbest 'quiz' I've ever seen.

[IkeVandergraaf]

I would kill one person to save five.  And then kill those five to save twenty five.  And keep going on like that, killing and saving, killing and saving, until my arms got tired.

[unbreakable]

Kill one man, and you are a murderer.
Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror.
Kill them all, and you are a god.
- Jean Rostand

[PaulBot]

Kill one man, and you are a murderer.
Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror.
Kill them all, and you are a god.
- Jean Rostand

Kill one, it is a tragedy.
Kill ten million, it is a statistic.
    -Joseph Stalin

[CeeKay]

Kill one man, and you are a murderer.
Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror.
Kill them all, and you are a god.
- Jean Rostand

but if you kill them all you have no worshipers and therefore lose all power.

[Toe]

Kill a man and he is dead.

Teach a man to kill then hire him out as a hit man.

Profit!!!

[IkeVandergraaf]

Kill one man, and you are a murderer.
Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror.
Kill them all, and you are a god.
- Jean Rostand

but if you kill them all you have no worshipers and therefore lose all power.

No, you don't kill the women.