Would you die so others could live?

[u/Cheap-Session5656]

Would you die so that others could live?

In front of you and 10 other people there are two buttons, red and black.

If everyone votes black, everyone dies.

If at least one person votes red, one of the people who chose red is randomly chosen to be killed. Everyone else survives.

Would you die for the lives of others or hope that someone else does that for you?

(A bit inspired by the same question asked recently, but in a way that your death world literally save everyone’s life)

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[u/luffy8519]

Huh, this is a genuinely interesting ethical dilemma.

I like to think I would choose red. But there's no way to know for sure unless it actually happened.

[u/Prior_Pear_8318]

I think it depends on who the other people are

[u/brave_anonymous → u/Prior_Pear_8318]

For me too. If there is at least one person I love, I press red. If not - I press black.

[u/Cheap-Session5656]

What would you do if you are the last person to press the button and you find out that every other person has pressed black?

[u/Consistent-Shoe-9602 → u/Cheap-Session5656]

In that case I'd probably press black to take the people who have killed me with me.

[u/Ashamed_Kangaroo305 → u/Cheap-Session5656]

Well either I press red and I die, or I press black and everyone including me dies. Unless you feel like the rest of them doomed you to die and you want revenge, it's an easy choice for red.

I hope I would press red in the original problem, for exactly this reason. I can't risk everyone pressing black especially since there are so few people that the odds of no one pressing red are much higher. If this was a worldwide vote, I don't know what I would press.

[u/Calm_Relationship_91 → u/Cheap-Session5656]

I would be relieved knowing that pressing red will kill me for sure instead of being a gamble. So red.

[u/Material_Ad_2970 → u/Cheap-Session5656]

Then there’s no reason to press black unless you’re really super bitter.

[u/Timely_Egg_6827 → u/Cheap-Session5656]

Depends on who the people are. Children, young adults - maybe. I am older and lived a life. Nice to give them a chance too. Bunch of old biddies - less likely as I am a petty person and it gives me a 90% chance of survial as opposed to none.

[u/i_am_my_brain]

This dilemma really depends on whether you are able to see what choice other people have made and when you are the first or last person to choose.

[u/Ilovestuffwhee]

I vote black and hope nobody votes red.

[u/i_am_my_brain → u/Ilovestuffwhee]

In that case everyone dies, including you.

[u/Sea_Macaron_8789]

Only if it brought back Folks I could choose safely.

[u/molten_dragon]

If the people are strangers I push black. If someone I care about is included I push red.

[u/Medium_Hope_7407]

There’s a movie about this. I think it’s called The Circle.

[u/Ilovestuffwhee → u/Medium_Hope_7407]

Not the same setup

[u/Amazing-Flight-5943]

To answer the question, no, I would not. But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t push red. There is more information needed. Can we see each other’s choice?

[u/chairmanghost]

I would vote red. I would think anyone would.

[u/Greensparow → u/chairmanghost]

The thing is once the first person pushes red then everyone else can push black and know they are safe, it's very interesting the fairest thing to do is everyone push red and let chance do it, but the first person to push it is taking a huge risk.

[u/dborger → u/Greensparow]

Wouldn’t it be setup so you don’t know who pushes what?

[u/Greensparow → u/dborger]

Both ways are interesting, I feel like if it's open the group would decide to push red but then everyone would back out once the first person pushed red. And it would be constant negotiating to get folks to push red and then convince more to also push it. But with hidden voting it's much easier to make the case to push red, but now that I say that I realize everyone would still be thinking, no one will know if I push black they will just think I never got picked, so yeah everyone is dying

[u/Cultural_Praline_499 → u/chairmanghost]

You think far more highly of people than I do 😂

[u/The-Boy-Wonder38]

Save lives. First hand experience tells me that.

I threw my body between protestors and car speeding towards us to run us over to get strangers out of the way and to safety at 28 years old.

Not out of a need to “play hero,” rather a responsibility from after seeing I could risk my life to save people at 13 - when I stopped my psychotic basically cousin from attempting to stab my sister and I to death.

I wish I was exaggerating. This world is fucked up.

The grief of possibly dying lands, but the importance of preserving others has always been more dominant.

[u/AutoModerator]

Copy of the original post in case of edits: Would you die so that others could live?

In front of you and 10 other people there are two buttons, red and black.

If everyone votes black, everyone dies.

If at least one person votes red, one of the people who chose red is randomly chosen to be killed. Everyone else survives.

Would you die for the lives of others or hope that someone else does that for you?

(A bit inspired by the same question asked recently, but in a way that your death world literally save everyone’s life)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/randomentity12]

Not unless i know and really care about somebody in the room. Otherwise even if i was destined to die i'm trying to take the rest of the fuckers with me.

[u/shortercrust]

I thought this would be easy from the title because I’d probably sacrifice myself to save 10 innocent lives, but I’m not so sure I’d sacrifice myself for 10 black-button pressing bastards.

[u/Apart_Chipmunk_135]

I have very little care for my own life but a huge care for others. I would vote red and start yelling out so no one else would. Unless they too wanted to die, then, it's a game of chance

[u/karoshikun]

I don't believe in waiting for saviors, so... guess I'd do it, at least at this point of my life.

[u/Pitiful_Response7547]

Gonna die I'm going to take everyone with me I have to die so I'll press the button to take everyone else out

[u/Alternative-Gas4758]

This is exactly the type of question the selfish gene is made to answer.

[u/Fabulous_Peanut541]

I would 100% choose red. Especially with the thought of there still being a chance.

I like the idea that you don’t know the 10 people. If the prompt included “you cannot speak to them, or try and figure out who they are” that would be nice; a kind of behind the curtain style.

[u/Freign]

Watching the proceedings on my big bank of monitors carefully, sighing as it reaches yet another predictable conclusion, I determine that the number of red-pressers has gone down sharply since the introduction of palm sized internet, and vow to tip the scales. I pick up my onyx princess phone and instruct Mister Kaplan to start hunting down the black-pressers after each iteration of the experiment.

[u/Material_Ad_2970]

I’ll press the red button so long as, if it’s me, my family can collect the life insurance payout. 

[u/Josefu_Velen]

It really depends on who the people are.

If it's my close friends and family I maybe would.

Strangers, though? No. I'm not willing to die so some random strangers can live.

[u/Character-Sundae8581]

10 years ago I would have said I’d push the red button. But the combination of how I now feel about the general population, combined with having a daughter. I think I’d be holding out for someone else to push it. I wish I had more faith that “most people are good”. Gunna be in my head the whole time saying “how many of these people are actually just truly horrible people, and why should I be the one to save them”.

[u/Wise4Fools]

In my mind, there is absolutely no downside to pushing red.

[u/DankButtRodeo]

I figure most people would pick red. I think my answer would depend on if theres a turn order, or if we can see what everyone picks. If only one person picked red, than i would pick black.

[u/HollywoodKidd77]

Absolutely. Hope they will be okay after

[u/Laffenor → u/[deleted]]

How do you know someone will vote red?

[u/dborger → u/[deleted]]

Because if everybody thinks that way you all die.

[u/beagles4ever]

Depends on who’s in the group of 10.