A runaway trolley is speeding toward five people tied to the track. You are standing next to a lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley will divert to a side track — where one person is tied. You must decide: pull the lever and actively cause one death to prevent five, or do nothing and allow five to die. You have seconds.
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Question

A runaway trolley is speeding toward five people tied to the track. You are standing next to a lever. If you pull the lever, the trolley will divert to a side track — where one person is tied. You must decide: pull the lever and actively cause one death to prevent five, or do nothing and allow five to die. You have seconds.

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Accepted Answer

68% chose "Pull the lever — five lives outweigh one" and 32% chose "Do nothing — I won't actively cause a death". This is the most studied moral philosophy thought experiment of the 20th century, devised by Philippa Foot in 1967. It pits utilitarian logic (greatest good for the greatest number) against deontological constraint (it's wrong to use a person as a means to an end). Most people pull the lever in this version — but when the dilemma changes so that you must physically push someone onto the tracks to stop the trolley, the same people refuse. The math is identical; the moral intuition changes. Why?

The trolley problem

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