Stuff You Should Know - How Trolley Problems Work

Episode Date: May 6, 2008

The trolley problem is an ethical dilemma that proposes a difficult decision about choosing whether a group of strangers lives or dies. Learn more about ethics and the nature of sacrifice in this HowStuffWorks podcast. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid work. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hi and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com. And with me as always is my trusty editor, Chris Palette, and his fantastic goatee. Chris, today I want to talk about how the trolley problem works. A very cool article that I wrote and you edited. So do

you want to give some background on the trolley problem? What is it? Well, it's every San Franciscan's worst nightmare. Imagine if you will, there's an out of control trolley speeding down the tracks, and if nothing stops it, then it's going to go out of control. It's going to flip and kill the people on board. Five people, right? Well, that's, yeah, five or, you know, 15. Hey, you know, it could be fully loaded. Who knows. But the problem is these people are going to die unless you do something to stop it. But, you know, it's speeding trolley. What are you going to do? Until you notice that the track has a switch in it and that you could actually switch the track with this lever that you happen to be standing next to. Well, that's great, right? You're going to

switch it to another track. You're going to save the lives of the people on the trolley because it's going to give them a chance to slow down and stop. Except there's somebody on that other track. And if you pull that switch and save the lives of all the people on the trolley, then it will kill this other man. So it's an ethical dilemma. What do you do? That is an ethical dilemma. And there's a second part. What's the, what's the second part? Well, the second part is this. There's no switch. There's just one track with an out-of-control trolley and several people on it who are going to die unless you do something. Next to you stands a person. You know, probably not a diminutive person. It would have to be somebody big enough

to stop a trolley. But if you push them on top, on in front of the trolley, onto the tracks, then you could stop the trolley and, you know, by slowing it down. But obviously, you know, the trolley would run over this person and kill them. That is a doornail. Yeah. That is Cisco. So what do you do? Do you sacrifice one life for many? That is an excellent question. And it's one that's been plaguing people since it was first produced in the 60s. This philosophical problem, it shows the distinction between allowing to die, which is, you know, pulling that lever and sending the man on the auxiliary track to his death and

actually actively killing somebody, which is pushing the less than diminutive man in front of the trolley. What would you do, Chris? You personally, would you pull the lever? You know, it's one of those situations where you never know what you're really going to do until you're actually thrust in that situation. And it's easy to say one way or the other, you know, based on, I've got all the time in the world to make the decision. If I, you know, sitting right here right now, I would say yes. I would sacrifice one person's life for the people on the trolley. But, you know, there's always the option of standing there horrified and watching it all happen and then realizing afterward that, you know... Would you push the man in front of the

trolley? That is much, much tougher because then I would actively be killing somebody to save the lives of someone else. You know, I saw another article since this has been published that suggested, you know, there are many ethical dilemmas like this. It's funny how the study of these kinds of questions has exploded in colleges and universities. And I saw this additional one where, what would happen if you had a trap door and you could drop the person to his death instead of, you know, pushing, actually pushing him on the tracks? I don't know if I could actually kill somebody to save the lives of someone else. If I were, you know, if it was an act of saving a group of people and it was a passive thing, you know, it would be much easier than

if it was active. Your response is actually pretty much fall in step with the majority of people. Most people answer that they would pull the lever. Ergo, they are okay with dispatching someone to their death as long as they don't have to get their hands dirty. Most people draw the line at pushing the large man in front of the trolley. And I can understand that, but what that talks about, what that discloses is the, our society's view of utilitarianism now. I mean, doesn't it make sense that under any circumstance, you push one man to his death to save five or 15, you've saved four more than you've taken. It just makes sense. But we draw the line at that. And we've actually developed, we've used that kind of philosophical view to develop rules in

our society. Take, for example, transplants, patients. If you have somebody who likes to beat up kittens and they have a bunch of great organs, why don't we just kill those people, take their organs and deliver them to five people who don't beat up kittens. You know, it's these kind of dilemmas that we're faced with every day. And thank God for philosophy is all I have to say. Read how the trolley problem works on howstuffworks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you?

The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff, stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be fun. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.