Stimuli used in Experiment 1
Moral Personal Dilemmas
1. Crying Baby (Koenigs et al., 2007)
Enemy soldiers have taken over your village. They have orders to kill all remaining civilians. You and some of your townspeople have sought refuge in the cellar of a large house. Outside you hear the voices of soldiers who have come to search the house for valuables. Your baby begins to cry loudly. You cover his mouth to block the sound. If you remove your hand from his mouth his crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will kill you, and the others hiding out in the cellar. To save yourself and the others you must smother your child to death.
Would you smother your child in order to save yourself and the other townspeople?
2. Sophie's Choice (Koenigs et al., 2007)
It is wartime and you and your children, ages eight and five, are living in a territory that has been occupied by the enemy. At the enemy's headquarters is a doctor who performs painful experiments on human that inevitably lead to death. He needs to perform experiments on one of your children, but he will allow you to choose which of your children will be experimented upon. You have twenty-four hours to bring one of your children to his laboratory. If you refuse to bring one of your children to his laboratory he will find them both and experiment on both of them.
Would you bring one of your children to the laboratory in order to avoid having them both die?
3. Ecologists (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are part of a group of ecologists who live in a remote stretch of jungle. The entire group, which includes eight children, has been taken hostage by a group of paramilitary terrorists. One of the terrorists takes a liking to you. He informs you that his leader intends to kill you and the rest of the hostages the following morning. He is willing to help you and the children escape, but as an act of good faith he wants you to kill one of your fellow hostages whom he does not like. If you refuse his offer all the hostages including the children and yourself will die. If you accept his offer then the others will die in the morning but you and the eight children will escape.
Would you kill one of your fellow hostages in order to escape from the terrorists and save the lives of the eight children?
4. Footbridge (Koenigs et al., 2007):
A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workmen who will be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are on a footbridge over the tracks, in between the approaching trolley and the five workmen. Next to you on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. The only way to save the lives of the five workmen is to push this stranger off the bridge and onto the tracks below where his large body will stop the trolley. The stranger will die if you do this, but the five workmen will be saved.
Would you push the stranger on to the tracks in order to save the five workmen?
5. Vitamins (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are the leader of a mountaineering expedition that is stranded in the wilderness. Your expedition includes a family of six that has a genetically caused vitamin deficiency. A few people's kidneys contain large amounts of this vitamin. There is one such person in your party. The only way to save the lives of the six members of this family is to remove one of this man's kidneys so that the necessary vitamins may be extracted from it. The man will not die if you do this, but his health will be compromised. The man is opposed to this plan, but you have the power do as you see fit.
Would you forcibly remove this man's kidney in order to save the lives of the six vitamin-deficient people?
6. Vaccine Test (Koenigs et al., 2007)
A viral epidemic has spread across the globe killing millions of people. You have developed two substances in your home laboratory. You know that one of them is a vaccine, but you don't know which one. You also know the other one is deadly. Once you figure out which substance is the vaccine you can use it to save millions of lives. You have with you two people who are under your care, and the only way to identify the vaccine is to inject each of these people with one of the two substances. One person will live, the other will die, and you will be able to start saving lives with your vaccine.
Would you kill one of these people with a deadly injection in order to identify a vaccine that will save millions of lives?
7. Euthanasia (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are the leader of a small group of soldiers. You are on your way back from a completed mission deep in enemy territory when one of your men has stepped in a trap that has been set by the enemy and is badly injured. The trap is connected to a radio device that by now has alerted the enemy of your presence. They will soon be on their way. If the enemy finds your injured man they will torture him and kill him. He begs you not to leave him behind, but if you try to take him with you your entire group will be captured. The only way to prevent this injured soldier from being tortured is to shoot him yourself.
Would you shoot this soldier in order to prevent him from being tortured by the enemy?
8. Lifeboat (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are on a cruise ship when there is a fire on board, and the ship has to be abandoned. The lifeboats are carrying many more people than they were designed to carry. The lifeboat you're in is sitting dangerously low in the water—a few inches lower and it will sink. The seas start to get rough, and the boat begins to fill with water. If nothing is done it will sink before the rescue boats arrive and everyone on board will die. However, there is an injured person who will not survive in any case. If you throw that person overboard the boat will stay afloat and the remaining passengers will be saved.
Would you throw this person overboard in order to save the lives of the remaining passengers?
9. Preventing the Spread 2 (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are a waiter. You overhear one of your customers say that he is about to go to jail and that in his last forty-eight hours of freedom he plans to infect as many people as possible with HIV. You know him well enough to know that he is telling the truth and that he has access to many potential victims. You happen to know that he has a very strong allergy to poppy seeds. If he eats even one he will go into convulsions and have to be hospitalized for at least forty-eight hours.
Would you cause this man to a have a serious allergy attack in order to prevent him from spreading HIV?
10. Submarine (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are the captain of a military submarine traveling underneath a large iceberg. An onboard explosion has caused you to lose most of your oxygen supply and has injured one your crew who is quickly losing blood. The injured crew member is going to die from his wounds no matter what happens. The remaining oxygen is not sufficient for the entire crew to make it to the surface. The only way to save the other crew members is to shoot dead the injured crew member so that there will be just enough oxygen for the rest of the crew to survive.
Would you kill the fatally injured crew member in order to save the lives of the remaining crew members?
11. Plane Crash (Koenigs et al., 2007)
Your plane has crashed in the Himalayas. The only survivors are yourself, another man, and a young boy. The three of you travel for days, battling extreme cold and wind. Your only chance at survival is to find your way to a small village on the other side of the mountain, several days away. The boy has a broken leg and cannot move very quickly. His chances of surviving the journey are essentially zero. Without food, you and the other man will probably die as well. The other man suggests that you sacrifice the boy and eat his remains over the next few days.
Would you kill this boy so that you and the other man may survive your journey to safety?
12. Architect (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are a young architect visiting one of your construction sites with your boss. Your boss is a despicable individual who makes everyone around him miserable including you. It occurs to you that if you were to push him off the building you are inspecting he would fall to his death and everyone would think it was an accident.
Would you push your boss off the building in order to get him out of your life?
13. Transplant (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are a doctor. You have five patients, each of which is about to die due to a failing organ of some kind. You have another patient who is healthy. The only way that you can save the lives of the first five patients is to transplant five of this young man's organs (against his will) into the bodies of the other five patients. If you do this, the young man will die, but the other five patients will live.
Would you perform this transplant in order to save five of your patients?
14. Smother for Dollars (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are in a hospital lounge waiting to visit a sick friend. A young man sitting next to you explains that his father is very ill. The doctors believe that he has a week to live at most. He explains further that his father has a substantial life insurance policy that expires at midnight. If his father dies before midnight, this young man will receive a very large sum of money. He says that the money would mean a great deal to him and that no good will come from his father's living a few more days. He offers you half a million dollars to go up to his father's room and smother his father with a pillow.
Would you kill this man's father in order to get money for yourself and this young man?
15. Country Road (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are driving along a country road when you hear a plea for help coming from some roadside bushes. You pull over and encounter a man whose legs are covered with blood. The man explains that he has had an accident while hiking and asks you to take him to a nearby hospital. Your initial inclination is to help this man, who will probably lose his leg if he does not get to the hospital soon. However, if you give this man a lift, his blood will ruin the leather upholstery of your car.
Would you leave this man by the side of the road in order to preserve the leather upholstery?
Moral Impersonal Dilemmas
16. Standard Fumes (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are the late-night watchman in a hospital. Due to an accident in the building next door, there are deadly fumes rising up through the hospital's ventilation system. In a certain room of the hospital are three patients. In another room there is a single patient. If you do nothing the fumes will rise up into the room containing the three patients and cause their deaths. The only way to avoid the deaths of these patients is to hit a certain switch, which will cause the fumes to bypass the room containing the three patients. As a result of doing this the fumes will enter the room containing the single patient, causing his death.
Would you hit the switch in order to avoid the deaths of the three patients?
17. Standard Trolley (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are at the wheel of a runaway trolley quickly approaching a fork in the tracks. On the tracks extending to the left is a group of five railway workmen. On the tracks extending to the right is a single railway workman. If you do nothing the trolley will proceed to the left, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The only way to avoid the deaths of these workmen is to hit a switch on your dashboard that will cause the trolley to proceed to the right, causing the death of the single workman.
Would you hit the switch in order to avoid the deaths of the five workmen?
18. Sculpture (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are visiting the sculpture garden of a wealthy art collector. The garden overlooks a valley containing a set of train tracks. A railway workman is working on the tracks, and an empty runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward the workman. The only way to save the workman's life is to push one of the art collector's prized sculptures down into the valley so that it will roll onto the tracks and block the trolley's passage. Doing this will destroy the sculpture.
Would you destroy the sculpture in order to save this workman's life?
19. Lost Wallet (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are walking down the street when you come across a wallet lying on the ground. You open the wallet and find that it contains several hundred dollars in cash as well the owner's driver's license. From the credit cards and other items in the wallet it's very clear that the wallet's owner is wealthy. You, on the other hand, have been hit by hard times recently and could really use some extra money. You consider sending the wallet back to the owner without the cash, keeping the cash for yourself.
Would you keep the money you found in the wallet in order to have more money for yourself?
20. Resume (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You have been trying to find a job lately without much success. You figure that you would be more likely to get hired if you had a more impressive resume. You could put some false information on your resume in order to make it more impressive. By doing this you might ultimately manage to get hired, beating out several candidates who are actually more qualified than you.
Would you put false information on your resume in order to help yourself find employment?
21. Illegal Lunch (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are a lawyer working on a big case. The judge presiding over the trial happens to be someone you knew from law school. The two of you were rather friendly back then, but now, decades later, it seems that your old friend barely remembers you. You're quite sure that if you were to talk to him over lunch, you could jog his memory and he would begin to see you as an old buddy, which would be very good for your work on this case. It's illegal for judges and lawyers working on the same case to meet socially.
Would you meet with this judge socially in order to help you win your case?
22. 5 for 7 Trolley (Greene et al., 2001)
You are at the wheel of a runaway trolley quickly approaching a fork in the tracks. On the tracks extending to the left is a group of five railway workmen. On the tracks extending to the right is a group of seven railway workmen. If you do nothing the trolley will proceed to the left, causing the deaths of the five workmen. The only way to save these workmen is to hit a switch on your dashboard that will cause the trolley to proceed to the right, causing the deaths of the seven workmen on the other side.
Would you hit the switch in order to avoid the deaths of the five workmen?
23. Environmental Policy A1 (Greene et al., 2001)
You are a member of a government legislature. The legislature is deciding between two different policies concerning environmental hazards. Policy A has a 90% chance of causing no deaths at all and a 10% chance of causing 1000 deaths. Policy B has a 92% chance of causing no deaths and an 8% chance of causing 10,000 deaths.
Would you vote for Policy A over Policy B?
24. Environmental Policy A2 (Greene et al., 2001)
You are a member of a government legislature. The legislature is deciding between two different policies concerning environmental hazards. Policy A has a 90% chance of causing no deaths at all and has a 10% chance of causing 1000 deaths. Policy B has an 88% chance of causing no deaths and a 12% chance of causing 10 deaths.
Would you vote for Policy B over Policy A?
Non-moral Dilemmas
25. Brownies (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You have decided to make a batch of brownies for yourself. You open your recipe book and find a recipe for brownies. The recipe calls for a cup of chopped walnuts. You don't like walnuts, but you do like macadamia nuts. As it happens, you have both kinds of nuts available to you.
Would you substitute macadamia nuts for walnuts in order to avoid eating walnuts?
26. Standard Turnips (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You are a farm worker driving a turnip-harvesting machine. You are approaching two diverging paths. By choosing the path on the left you will harvest ten bushels of turnips. By choosing the path on the right you will harvest twenty bushels of turnips. If you do nothing your turnip-harvesting machine will turn to the left.
Would you turn your turnip-picking machine to the right in order to harvest twenty bushels of turnips instead of ten?
27. Survey (Koenigs et al., 2007)
A representative of a reputable, national survey organization calls you at your home while you are having a quiet dinner by yourself. The representative explains that if you are willing to spend a half an hour answering questions about a variety of topics her organization will send you a check for $200.
Would you interrupt your dinner in order to earn $200?
28. Broken DVD (Koenigs et al., 2007)
You have brought your broken DVD player to the local repair shop. The woman working at the shop tells you that it will cost you about $100 to have it fixed. You noticed in the paper that morning that the electronics shop next door is having a sale on DVD players and that a certain new DVD player which is slightly better than your old one is on sale for $100.
Would you have your old DVD player fixed in order to avoid spending money on a new one?
29. Scenic Route (Koenigs et al., 2007)
An old friend has invited you to spend the weekend with him at his summer home some ways up the coast from where you are. You intend to travel there by car, and there are two routes that you can take: the highway and the coastal road. The highway will get you to your friend's house in about three hours, but the scenery along the highway is very boring. The coastal route will get you to your friend's house in about three hours and fifteen minutes, and the scenery along the coastal road is breathtakingly beautiful.
Would you take the coastal route in order to observe the beautiful scenery as you drive?
(Adapted from Moore et al., 2008)
SELF BENEFICIAL, Avoidable death
1. Burning Building
Personal
You and five other people are trapped in a burning building. There is only one emergency exit through which all of you could escape to safety, but it is blocked by burning debris. You notice another person in the hallway leading to the exit who has been injured but is about to crawl to safety through a small hole at the bottom of the exit door. You and the five people behind you do not have time to climb through the small hole. You realize that you could grab the injured man and use his body as a battering-ram to break through the burning blockage in the hallway that is preventing your escape. Doing this is certain to kill him. However, if you do not do this, you and the five people behind you will die.
Use man as battering ram
Save
yourself and 5 others
Allow man to escape
Save only him
Impersonal-Incidental
You and five other people are trapped in a burning building. There is only one emergency exit through which all of you could escape to safety, but it is blocked by burning debris. You notice another person in the hallway leading to the exit who has been injured but is about to crawl to safety through a small hole at the bottom of the exit door.
You and the five people behind you do not have time to climb through the small hole. The hallway's emergency system puts out fire by eliminating oxygen from the hall and you can activate the system by pressing a nearby button. The fire will go out, but the injured person will suffocate and die. However, if you do not do this, you and the five people behind you will die.
Activate emergency system
Save
yourself and 5 others
Allow man to escape
Save only him
2. Modified Crying Baby
Personal
Enemy soldiers have taken over your village. They have orders to kill all remaining civilians over the age of two. You and some of your townspeople have sought refuge in two rooms of the cellar of a large house. Outside you hear the voices of soldiers who have come to search the house for valuables. Your baby, who is with you in the room, begins to cry loudly. You put your hand over his mouth to block the sound. If you remove your hand from his mouth his crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will spare your baby's life, but will kill you and the others hiding in both rooms. To save yourself and the others you must keep your hand on his mouth and smother your baby to death.
Smother your baby
Save yourself
and 5 others
Let baby cry
Save only baby
Impersonal-Incidental
Enemy soldiers have taken over your village. They have orders to kill all remaining civilians over the age of two. You and some of your townspeople have sought refuge in two rooms of the cellar of a large house. Outside you hear the voices of soldiers who have come to search the house for valuables. Your baby begins to cry loudly in the other room. His crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will spare your baby's life, but will kill you and the others hiding in both rooms. If you turn on the noisy furnace to block the sound, the other room will become uncomfortably hot for adults and children, but deadly for infants.
To save yourself and the others you must activate the furnace, which will kill your baby.
Turn on the furnace
Save yourself
and 5 others
Leave furnace off
Save only baby
3) Modified Submarine
Personal You are a crewperson on a marine-research submarine traveling underneath a large iceberg. An onboard explosion has damaged the ship, killed and injured several crewmembers. Additionally, it has collapsed the only access corridor between the upper and lower parts of the ship. The upper section, where you and most of the others are located, does not have enough oxygen remaining for all of you to survive until you reach the surface. Only one remaining crewmember is located in the lower section, where there is enough oxygen. There is an emergency access hatch between the upper and lower sections of the ship. If released, it will fall to the deck and allow oxygen to reach the upper section. However, a crewmember in the lower section was knocked unconscious and is lying beneath the hatch while you and the rest of the crew are almost out of air. If you shove the hatch open you and the others will have air, but it will fall to the deck, crushing the unconscious crewmember.
Open the hatch
Save yourself and
crewmembers
Leave hatch in place
Save
unconscious crewmember
Impersonal-Incidental
You are a crewperson on a marine-research submarine traveling underneath a large iceberg. An onboard explosion has damaged the ship, killed and injured several crewmembers. Additionally, it has collapsed the only access corridor between the upper and lower parts of the ship. The upper section, where you and most of the others are located, does not have enough oxygen remaining for all of you to survive until you reach the surface. Only one remaining crewmember is located in the lower section, where there is enough oxygen. There is an emergency access hatch between the upper and lower sections of the ship. If released by an emergency switch, it will fall to the deck and allow oxygen to reach the area where you and the others are.
However, the hatch will crush the crewmember below, since he was knocked unconscious and is lying beneath it. You and the rest of the crew are almost out of air though, and you will all die if you do not do this.
Release the hatch
Save yourself
and crewmembers
Leave hatch in place
Save
unconscious crewmember only
4. Shark Attack
Personal
You are part of a U.N. humanitarian team of SCUBA divers who are deactivating old World War II underwater anti-ship mines. One member of your diving team scrapes himself while trying to deactivate a mine. The blood in the water has attracted several sharks in the area. A feeding frenzy is about to ensue, with the sharks eating everything and everyone in sight. You have a spear-gun, but only one spear and there are many sharks. The bleeding diver is swimming toward the last protective shark cage and will reach it before you and the others. The sharks, following the blood, are coming too close for you and the other divers to escape. You realize that if you shoot and kill the injured diver with your spear-gun before he reaches the cage, the sharks would stop to eat him while you and the others escaped to safety.
Shoot the diver
Save yourself
and rest of group
Let diver reach cage
Save single
diver only
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are part of a U.N. humanitarian team of SCUBA divers who are deactivating old World War II underwater anti-ship mines. One member of your diving team scrapes himself while trying to deactivate a mine. The blood in the water has attracted several sharks in the area. A feeding frenzy is about to ensue, with the sharks eating everything and everyone in sight. You have a spear-gun, but only one spear and there are many sharks. The bleeding diver is swimming toward the last protective shark cage and will reach it before you and the others. The sharks, following the blood, are coming too close for you and the other divers to escape. You realize that if you used the emergency remote to detonate one of the mines, the resulting explosion would kill the injured diver before he reached the cage, allowing you and the others to reach safety.
Detonate the mine
Save yourself
and rest of group
Let diver reach cage
Save single
diver only
5. Orphanage
Personal
You work in an orphanage in a war torn country. Rebel soldiers have staged a successful takeover of the government and are now killing everyone who did not support their regime. Soldiers have entered your town and are burning and killing all those whose loyalty is in question. You and the children in the orphanage did not support this regime. Furthermore, this group of soldiers is conducting an ‘ethnic cleansing' genocide campaign to kill everyone of a particular ethnic group in the country. You have one child of this ethnic group in your orphanage. You know smugglers who could safely get her out of the country but there is no way for you and the other children to escape, and the soldiers will certainly kill you all. You could smother the one child to death with a pillow while she is sleeping. Since the soldiers hate the ethnic group she is part of, they would see this as supporting their regime. Consequently, they would spare you and the other children.
Smother the child
Save yourself
and other children
Smuggle the child away
Save only
her
Impersonal-Instrumental
You work in an orphanage in a war torn country. Rebel soldiers have staged a successful takeover of the government and are now killing everyone who did not support their regime. Soldiers have entered your town and are burning and killing all those whose loyalty is in question. You and the children in the orphanage did not support this regime. Furthermore, this group of soldiers is conducting an ‘ethnic cleansing' genocide campaign to kill everyone of a particular ethnic group in the country. You have one child of this ethnic group in your orphanage. You know smugglers who could safely get her out of the country but there is no way for you and the other children to escape, and the soldiers will certainly kill you all. You could order the nurse to lethally overdose the child on sleeping pills. Since the soldiers hate the ethnic group she is part of, they would see this as supporting their regime. Consequently, they would spare you and the other children.
a)
Order the overdose
Save yourself and other children
b)
Smuggle the child away
Save only her
6. Preventing Ebola
Personal
You are a Peace Corps health-worker who is volunteering in a rural African village. A prominent man from a nearby village has contracted an Ebola virus that is extremely contagious, incurable, and almost always fatal within a week. Miraculously, this man has survived for a month, and so he must be a rare carrier who is immune to the virus' deadly effects. However, this man wrongly believes that your health center can cure his disease. You see him approaching and you know that if he enters the village he will spread the virus to hundreds of innocent people who, unlike him, will die. There is a loaded gun in the health center. You realize that the only way you can prevent him from entering the village and spreading the virus to you and the rest of the village is to shoot and kill him as he approaches.
Shoot the man
Save yourself and
village
Allow the man to approach
Save
only him
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are a Peace Corps health-worker who is volunteering in a rural African village. A prominent man from a nearby village has contracted an Ebola virus that is extremely contagious, incurable, and almost always fatal within a week. Miraculously, this man has survived for a month, and so he must be a rare carrier who is immune to the virus' deadly effects. However, this man wrongly believes that your health center can cure his disease. You see him approaching and you know that if he enters the village he will spread the virus to hundreds of innocent people who, unlike him, will die. The only way you can prevent him from entering the village and spreading the virus to you and the rest of the village is to warn the village council that he is coming. This will result in him being shot and killed as he approaches.
Warn village council
Save
yourself and the village
Allow the man to approach
Save
only him
SELF BENEFICIAL, Inevitable death
7. Rescue 911
Personal
You are the sole paramedic riding on a rescue helicopter, responding to a devastating flood. You have rescued several critically injured people and you have been treating them to keep them alive. Suddenly, the pilot notifies you that there has been an engine malfunction and the helicopter can no longer support the weight of you, the pilot, and all the injured people on board. If the helicopter crashes, it will kill everyone on board including you, the pilot, and the injured people that you have rescued. In order to avoid a crash that will kill everyone on the helicopter, you realize that you must lighten the load enough to keep the helicopter aloft. Because all of the equipment is bolted down, and you are needed by the injured people, the only way to do this is to throw one of the injured people off the helicopter. This will lighten the load enough to keep the helicopter in the air but will cause the death of the person thrown off.
Throw out injured person
Save
yourself and others onboard
Keep everyone on board
Save no
one
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are the sole paramedic riding on a rescue helicopter, responding to a devastating flood. You have rescued several critically injured people and you have been treating them to keep them alive. Suddenly, the pilot notifies you that there has been an engine malfunction and the helicopter can no longer support the weight of you, the pilot, and all the injured people on board. If the helicopter crashes, it will kill everyone on board including you, the pilot, and the injured people that you have rescued. In order to avoid a crash that will kill everyone on the helicopter, you realize that you must lighten the load enough to keep the helicopter aloft. Because all of the equipment is bolted down, and you are needed by the injured people, the only way to do this is to cut the cable that is raising up the last rescued person. This will lighten the load enough to keep the helicopter in the air, but it will also kill the person who is dropped.
Cut the cable
Save yourself and
others onboard
Leave cable intact
Save no one
8. Space Station
Personal
You are an engineer on the international space station, in orbit around the Earth. Suddenly, a fire breaks out in the cargo bay. The automatic fire safety system will open the outer door of the cargo bay, letting the oxygen out of the bay and thus putting out the fire. The automatic system only works when the inner portal to the rest of the station has been sealed. One member of the crew, a mechanic in the cargo bay, has put on half of his bulky space suit when the fire begins. He runs to the portal to climb through to safety, but the portal is too narrow to fit through while wearing a space suit. You realize that if he tries to climb through, he will get stuck and the fire will spread through the rest of the station because the safety system will not operate with the portal open. There is no time for him to take off the suit before the fire spreads. The only way you can prevent the spread of the fire, and save your life and the rest of the crew, is to push the mechanic back through the portal and into the cargo bay. This way, the safety system will seal the door and decompress the cargo bay, but it will also suck the mechanic into space and kill him.
Push mechanic through portal
Save
yourself and crew
Let mechanic stay in portal
Save
no one
Impersonal-Incidental
You are an engineer on the international space station, in orbit around the Earth. Suddenly, a fire breaks out in the cargo bay. The automatic fire safety system will open the outer door of the cargo bay, letting the oxygen out of the bay and thus putting out the fire. The automatic system only works when the inner portal to the rest of the station has been sealed. One member of the crew, a mechanic in the cargo bay, has put on half of his bulky space suit when the fire begins. He runs to the portal to climb through to safety, but the portal is too narrow to fit through while wearing a space suit. You realize that if he tries to climb through, he will get stuck and the fire will spread through the rest of the station because the safety system will not operate with the portal open. There is no time for him to take off the suit before the fire spreads. The only way you can prevent the spread of the fire, and save your life and the rest of the crew, is to press a button in the control room that seals the portal before the mechanic gets there. This way, the system will seal the door and put out the fire, but it will also suck the mechanic into space and kill him.
Seal the portal
Save yourself
and crew
Leave portal open
Save no one
9. Nuclear Reactor
Personal
You are the inspector of a nuclear power plant that you suspect has not met its safety requirements. The plant foreman and you are touring the facility when one of the nuclear fuel rods overheats. The emergency coolant system fails to activate, and a chain reaction is about to begin which will result in a nuclear meltdown. This will release lethal radiation into the nearby town, killing thousands of people. You realize that the only way to stop the meltdown is to push the foreman into the fuel rod assembly. This will remove just enough heat energy from the rod assembly to prevent the nuclear chain reaction. However, it will also incinerate the foreman instantly.
Push and kill the foreman
Save
yourself and town
Keep foreman away from rods
Save
no one
Impersonal-Incidental
You are the inspector of a nuclear power plant that you suspect has not met its safety requirements. The plant foreman and you are touring the facility when one of the nuclear fuel rods overheats. The emergency coolant system fails to activate, and a chain reaction is about to begin which will result in a nuclear meltdown. This will release lethal radiation into the nearby town, killing thousands of people. You realize that the only way to stop the meltdown is to manually release liquid nitrogen into the fuel rod chamber. This will remove just enough heat energy from the rod assembly to prevent the nuclear chain reaction. However, it will also instantly kill an employee trapped nearby.
Release the nitrogen
Save
yourself and town
Withhold the nitrogen
Save no one
10. Cinderblock
Personal
You are the explosives expert for a company that has been hired to demolish a skyscraper. You are examining the last of the explosive charges when you notice a teenager below who is about to accidentally detonate one of the charges out of sequence. This explosion will result in the building's uncontrolled collapse onto you, the teenager, and the crowd of spectators. The teenager is several floors below you and cannot hear you because of the loud demolition noise. You realize that the only way to stop the teenager from detonating the charge is to drop a heavy cinderblock on his head. This will crush his skull and kill him almost instantly but will prevent the out-of-sequence explosion.
Drop the cinderblock
Save
yourself and crowd
Hold onto block
Save no one
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are the explosives expert for a company that has been hired to demolish a skyscraper. You are examining the last of the explosive charges when you notice a teenager below who is about to accidentally detonate one of the charges out of sequence. This explosion will result in the building's uncontrolled collapse onto you, the teenager, and the crowd of spectators. The teenager is several floors below you and cannot hear you because of the loud demolition noise. You realize that the only way to stop the teenager from detonating the charge is to flip a switch that reactivates the building's electricity. Because he is touching an open circuit, this will electrocute him but will prevent the explosion.
Reactive the electricity
Save
yourself and crew
Leave electricity off
Save no one
11. Cliffhanger
Personal
You are a construction worker. You and your crew are high on a scaffold, working on a skyscraper. Suddenly, the scaffolding partially collapses. You and several others are hanging on to a dangling crossbar, but it cannot hold all of your weight. The worker next to you slips off the crossbar and grabs a hold of your one free arm. However, you realize that the entire structure is about to give way. The only way to avoid you and everyone else falling to your deaths is to repeatedly kick your co-worker in the stomach and chest until he lets go of your hand and falls to his certain death. This will remove just enough weight that the rest of you can make it to safety before the scaffold collapses.
Kick co-worker off
Save yourself
and crew
Allow co-worker to hang on
Save no
one
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are a construction worker. You and your crew are high on a scaffold, working on a skyscraper. Suddenly, the scaffolding partially collapses. You and several others are hanging on to a dangling crossbar, but it cannot hold all of your weight. The only way to avoid you and everyone else falling to your deaths is to pull out a latch that will detach the section of scaffolding with your co-worker on it. This will remove just enough weight that the rest of you can make it to safety before the scaffold collapses. However, his fall will certainly kill him.
Pull the latch
Save yourself and
crew
Leave latch fastened
Save no one
12. Bus Plunge
Personal
You are the bus driver for a kindergarten field trip to the zoo. On the way, faulty tires cause the bus to overturn and plunge off of a bridge and into a roaring river. You and three of the children are still in the sinking bus, but the rest of the passengers have been swept away down the river to their deaths. You grab the two children nearest to you and begin to swim toward the exit door. The third remaining child grabs onto your leg. You realize that you are not strong enough to fight the current and swim with all three children holding on to you. The only way to reach the surface before you and the children drown is to shake the third child off of your leg. This will allow you to bring the two children to the surface with you, but the third child will drown.
Shake off third child
Save
yourself and two children
Allow child to hang on
Save no
one
Impersonal-Incidental
You are the bus driver for a kindergarten field trip to the zoo. On the way, faulty tires cause the bus to overturn and plunge off of a bridge and into a roaring river. You and three of the children are still in the sinking bus, but the rest of the passengers have been swept away down the river to their deaths. You grab the two children nearest to you and begin to swim toward the exit door. The two children you're holding onto cannot swim, nor can they hold their breath much longer. Unfortunately, the exit door is blocked by some mangled seats. You realize that the only way out is to pull the seats away from the exit, allowing you and the two children to escape the bus.
Move the seats
Save yourself and
two children
Leave the seats
Save no one
OTHER BENEFICIAL, Avoidable death
1. Modified Transplant
Personal
You are a doctor. You have five patients, each of whom is about to die due to a failing organ of some kind. A new person is rushed into the hospital after a serious car accident. This person is critically injured, and will die without immediate surgery. It is likely you can save this accident victim, though it would involve long and complicated surgery. You realize that if you purposely cut his carotid artery during surgery it would cause his death and no one would ever know. Then you could harvest his organs for transplant into the bodies of the other five patients. If you do this, the other five patients will live, but the accident victim will die.
Kill the accident victim
Save 5
patients
b) Operate on accident victim Keep accident victim alive
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are a doctor. You have five patients, each of whom is about to die due to a failing organ of some kind. A new person is rushed into the hospital after a serious car accident. This person is critically injured, and will die without immediate surgery. While involved in long and complicated surgery on the accident victim, you notice that a nurse is about to give him an inappropriate medication. You know that this error will be lethal and by ignoring this mistake and allowing it to happen, the patient will die. This would allow you to harvest his organs for transplant into the bodies of the other five patients. If you do this, the other five patients will live.
Ignore the mistake
Save 5
patients
Stop the mistake
Keep accident
victim alive
2. On the Waterfront
Personal
You are part of a shipyard dock team that attaches crane cables to huge transport containers that are to be unloaded from ships onto the shore. You and the others attach these cables and then ride on top of the containers, wearing safety harnesses, to make sure that the containers are unloaded properly. While you are riding on top of one container that is just being lifted out of the cargo bay, you see the red warning light that indicates that the crane cable is about to fail. You realize that if the cable fails and the container falls onto the deck of the ship, many of the crewmembers below will be crushed to death. You see that the cable is in danger because two other crewmembers are fighting on top of the container, causing it to sway dangerously. You could run over to the fight and push them apart, but one of the crewmembers has taken off his safety harness, and will certainly fall to his death. However, if you do not do this, the continued swaying will cause the cable to fail and the container to fall onto the deck, killing several people below.
Push unharnessed crewmember
Save
deck workers below
Stay away from the fight
Keep
unharnessed crewmember alive
Impersonal-Incidental
You are part of a shipyard dock team that attaches crane cables to huge transport containers that are to be unloaded from ships onto the shore. You and the others attach these cables and then ride on top of the containers, wearing safety harnesses, to make sure that the containers are unloaded properly. While you are riding on top of one container that is just being lifted out of the cargo bay, you see the red warning light that indicates that the crane cable is about to fail. You realize that if the cable fails and the container falls onto the deck of the ship, many of the crewmembers below will be crushed to death. You could hit the emergency release button, thereby dropping the container back into the cargo bay while you and the others remain securely attached to the crane by your safety harness. However, there is one person below you who is in the cargo bay and will be killed by the falling container because he has nowhere to go. If you do not do this though, the container will fall onto the deck of the ship and kill several other crewmembers.
Activate emergency release
Save
deck workers below
Ignore the warning light
Keep
cargo bay worker alive
3. Modified Vaccine Test
Personal
A viral epidemic has spread across the globe killing thousands of people. You are a medical researcher and have developed two substances in your laboratory. You know that one of them is a vaccine, but you don't know which because both of the vials have been mislabeled as vaccine. You also know that the other substance is deadly. Once you figure out which substance is the vaccine you can create more to save thousands of lives. You have two lab assistants who work with you, and the only way to identify the vaccine with certainty is to inject the two substances into these people against their wishes. One person will live, the other will die, and you will be able to start saving lives with your vaccine.
Inject lab assistants
Save
thousands of lives
Avoid injecting lab assistants Keep a lab assistant alive
Impersonal-Instrumental
A viral epidemic has spread across the globe killing thousands of people. You are a medical researcher and have developed two substances in your laboratory. You know that one of them is a vaccine, but you don't know which because both of the vials have been mislabeled as vaccine. You also know that the other substance is deadly. Once you figure out which substance is the vaccine you can create more to save thousands of lives. You could allow another doctor to inject two unsuspecting patients, who need the vaccine, with these substances without warning them or the doctor that one of the substances is deadly. One person will live, the other will die, and you will be able to start saving lives with your vaccine.
Allow Dr. to inject patients
Save
thousands of lives
Stop Dr. from injecting patients Keep one patient alive
4. Modified Footbridge/Trolley
Personal
A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workmen who will be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are standing next to the track on which the trolley is traveling, but you are too far away from the workmen to warn them of the impending danger. Next to you there is a very large stranger who is minding his own business. It occurs to you that if you pushed this person onto the tracks in front of the trolley, it would stop the trolley and save the five workmen from certain death. However, this would most certainly kill the stranger.
Push the stranger onto tracks
Save
5 workmen
Let the trolley pass
Keep
stranger alive
Impersonal-Incidental
A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workmen who will be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are standing next to the track on which the trolley is traveling, but you are too far away from the workmen to warn them of the impending danger. Next to you there is a control switch for the tracks that can reroute the trolley. You could divert the trolley onto another track and spare the five workmen from certain death. However, there is another workman on the new track that will certainly die if you divert the trolley.
Divert the trolley
Save 5
workmen
Let the trolley pass
Keep single
workman alive
5. Nobel Prize
Personal
You and a fellow researcher have discovered a powerful new energy source that is cheap, safe, and clean. You realize that this could lead to the elimination of pollution and poverty around the world. However, your colleague wants to sell this discovery. You know your colleague well enough to know that he will sell the discovery to the highest bidder at the first opportunity. You know that he plans to contact the potential buyers today, some of whom will certainly try to use this as a horrible weapon. The only way that you can prevent him from doing so is to poison him with an extremely deadly chemical normally found in the lab working on these types of projects. Everyone will think that it was just a lab accident, and the discovery will not be sold to those who might create a weapon out of it.
Poison your colleague
Prevent
weaponization
Let colleague contact buyers Keep colleague alive
Impersonal-Instrumental
You and a fellow researcher have discovered a powerful new energy source that is cheap, safe, and clean. You realize that this could lead to the elimination of pollution and poverty around the world. However, your colleague wants to sell this discovery to the military, which will turn it into a powerful new weapon. You know that he plans to contact the potential buyers through email, some of whom will certainly try to use this as a horrible weapon. You can prevent this by releasing a flammable gas in the lab, so that when he turns on his computer, it will cause an explosion. Everyone will think that it was just a lab accident, and the discovery will not be sold to those who might create a weapon out of it.
Release flammable gas
Prevent
weaponization
Let colleague contact buyers Keep colleague alive
6. Bike Week
Personal
You are an expert motorcycle rider and you have gone on vacation in order to participate in Bike Week. Thousands of other motorcycle riders from across the country have come to ride in this event. As you are riding down the road in the front of a large group of other riders you see that someone up ahead is losing control of their bike. As you speed up to pull alongside the unstable rider, you realize that this person is going to crash at any second. This would certainly result in a large pile-up and several deaths as the riders behind you run over each other trying to avoid the crashed rider. You realize that you could physically run this rider off the road and into some trees. This would cause him to crash and, at your current speed, almost certainly die, but it would prevent a crash in the middle of the street and the large pile-up of riders behind you.
Crash the rider
Save the riders
behind you
Watch rider fall
Keep single
rider alive
Impersonal-Incidental
You are an expert motorcycle rider and you have gone on vacation in order to participate in Bike Week. Thousands of other motorcycle riders from across the country have come to ride in this event. As you are riding down the road in the front of a large group of other riders you see that someone up ahead is losing control of his bike. As you watch him fall, you know that you could easily ride around the fallen rider but if you do, the riders behind you will run over each other trying to avoid the crash. This would result in a large pile-up and several deaths. This would warn the riders behind you of a wreck and prevent a large pile-up, but would also certainly kill the fallen rider.
Slide into rider
Save riders
behind you
Ride around fallen rider
Keep
fallen rider alive
OTHER BENEFICIAL, Inevitable Death
7. Modified Euthanasia
Personal
You are the leader of a small group of soldiers, and all of you are out of ammunition. You are on your way back from a completed mission deep in enemy territory when one of your men steps in a trap set by the enemy. His leg is badly injured and caught in the trap. You cannot free him from this trap without killing him. However, if you leave him behind, the enemy troops will find him and torture him to death. This soldier begs you not to leave him behind to be cruelly tortured to death. The enemy troops are closing in on your position. It is not safe for you or your men to remain with your trapped comrade any longer. In order to prevent this man's needless suffering at the hands of the enemy, you could kill him yourself by stabbing him in the heart.
Stab this man
Prevent his
needless suffering
Leave this man
Suffer at hands
of enemy
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are the leader of a small group of soldiers, and all of you are out of ammunition. You are on your way back from a completed mission deep in enemy territory when one of your men steps in a trap set by the enemy. His leg is badly injured and caught in the trap. You cannot free him from this trap without killing him. However, if you leave him behind, the enemy troops will find him and torture him to death. This soldier begs you not to leave him behind to be cruelly tortured to death. The enemy troops are closing in on your position. It is not safe for you or your men to remain with your trapped comrade any longer.
Call in bombing coordinates Prevent his needless suffering
Leave this man
Suffer at hands
of enemy
8. Modified Fumes
Personal
You are an orderly in a hospital during the night shift. You notice that a chemical has just been spilled in a room containing six patients. This chemical is highly toxic and if left on the floor will rapidly evaporate creating a poisonous gas. This will inevitably kill all the patients in the room. This chemical cannot simply be mopped up, nor can it be soaked up with towels or sheets. However, because you have worked around this chemical before, you know that this chemical absorbs into human skin very rapidly. You could pull one of the patients out of bed onto the spill so that the chemical will completely soak into this person's skin instead of evaporating into the air in the room. This will quickly kill the one patient but save the other five patients from the gas.
Put person onto spill
Save 5
patients
Allow chemical evaporation
Save no
patients
Impersonal-Incidental
You are an orderly in a hospital during the night shift. You notice that a chemical has just been spilled in a room containing five patients. This chemical is highly toxic and if left on the floor will rapidly evaporate creating a poisonous gas. This will inevitably kill all the patients in the room. This chemical cannot simply be mopped up, nor can it be soaked up with towels or sheets. You can flip a switch controlling the ventilation system that will draw the poisonous fumes out of the room in which the spill has occurred, saving the five patients. However, the exhaust duct leads to a room upstairs containing one other patient in critical condition. This patient will certainly die from exposure to the poisonous fumes before you can get to her, and there isn't anyone else around to help.
Divert airflow
Save 5 patients
Leave airflow unchanged
Save no
patients
9. Modified Rowboat
Personal
You are in a rowboat with a tour guide while sight-seeing on a lake in Alaska. You notice that three children have overturned their boat nearby. They are now in danger of quickly freezing to death in the icy water. You begin to row over to rescue them when you realize that your boat will not hold you, the tour guide, and the three children. Two of the children are closer to your boat than the third child. As you and the tour guide pull in the first two it is obvious that one of them is too heavy and if you keep him on board your boat will sink and all of the children will die. Neither you nor the guide can get out because you are rowing and the guide is performing CPR. The only way to save two children is to throw the large child off the boat and rescue the third one.
Throw off the large child
Save 2
other children
Let large child remain in
boat
Save no children
Impersonal-Incidental
You are in a rowboat with a tour guide while sight-seeing on a lake in Alaska. You notice that three children have overturned their boat nearby. They are now in danger of quickly freezing to death in the icy water. You begin to row over to rescue them when you realize that your boat will not hold you, the tour guide, and the three children. Two of the children are closer to your boat than the third child. As you and the tour guide pull in the first two it is obvious that they are too heavy and if you try to rescue the third child your boat will sink and all of the children will die. Neither you nor the guide can get out because you are rowing and the guide is performing CPR. The only way to save the two children is to row quickly away from the third one, leaving him to die.
Leave child behind
Save 2 other
children
Row towards the third child
Save
no children
10. Mine Shaft
Personal
You are a worker in a mine. The only way to exit the mine is to ride up in rock-buckets that can hold up to three people at a time. It is the end of the workday and miners from lower levels are riding up past you. As you are waiting for a bucket to ride in, you notice that the cable supporting the rock buckets is about to snap. If the cable snaps, all of the miners in the buckets will fall to their deaths. The only way to prevent this is to use your axe to hit the last bucket causing it to flip over and dump its contents, lightening the load enough to save the miners above. There is one miner in this bucket who will be killed as a result.
Flip last miner's bucket
Save
other minters
Let last bucket pass
Save no
miners
Impersonal-Incidental
You are a worker in a mine. The only way to exit the mine is to ride up in rock-buckets that can hold up to three people at a time. It is the end of the workday and miners from lower levels are riding up past you. As you are waiting for a bucket to ride in, you notice that the cable supporting the rock buckets is about to snap. If the cable snaps, all of the miners in the buckets will fall to their deaths. The only way to prevent this is to hit the emergency bucket release switch which will automatically detach the last bucket from the cable, lightening the load just enough to save the miners above. There is one miner in this bucket who will be killed as a result.
Hit the bucket release
Save other
miners
Let last bucket pass
Save no
miners
11. Tycoon
Personal
You are an electrician who has been hired to fix an electrical problem in the home of a very wealthy steel tycoon who is terminally ill with a very slow-growing cancer. Recently it had been publicly announced that when this man eventually dies, his enormous personal fortune is to be given to the local children's hospital. You know that there are many children at this hospital who could be saved with this money, but who cannot wait much longer before they die. It occurs to you that while you're in the house, fixing the electrical problem, you could quietly slip into the tycoon's room while he is sleeping and suffocate him by covering his nose and mouth with your gloved hands. This would look exactly like he had died from a heart attack. Then his money would go to the children's hospital where it would save many lives.
Kill this man
Hospital saves
extra children
Leave this man alone
Save no
extra children
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are an electrician who has been hired to fix an electrical problem in the home of a very wealthy steel tycoon who is terminally ill with a very slow-growing cancer. Recently it had been publicly It occurs to you that while in the house, instead of fixing the electrical problem, you could overload the circuits. The next time someone turned on something electrical, it would short out the tycoon's life support equipment, causing him to die. It would look like an accident, and the money would go to save the lives of children.
Create a lethal short circuit Hospital saves extra children
Fix electrical problem
Save no
extra children
12. Enemy Spy
Personal
You are an officer in the military during a war. Your soldiers have found a high-ranking enemy spy trapped and injured inside of a partially collapsed building. You have been informed over the radio that a large group of enemy soldiers is planning a surprise attack on one of several nearby towns. These soldiers will kill all the civilians in the town if you and your soldiers do not stop them, but you do not know which town they plan to attack. You have questioned the trapped spy who is high ranking and surely knows these plans, but he has refused to tell you which town is the target of the impending enemy attack. He will die soon from his many injuries. You could begin to beat, burn, cut, and otherwise painfully torture him in order to force him to reveal this information. He would die from this painful torture, but you and your soldiers could then protect the town from the surprise attack, saving hundreds of innocent lives.
Torture this enemy spy
Save
hundreds of lives
Let enemy spy die
Save no one in
the town
Impersonal-Instrumental
You are an officer in the military during a war. Your soldiers have found a high-ranking enemy spy trapped and injured inside of a partially collapsed building. You have been informed over the radio that a large group of enemy soldiers is planning a surprise attack on one of several nearby towns. These soldiers will kill all the civilians in the town if you and your soldiers do not stop them, but you do not know which town they plan to attack. You have questioned the trapped spy who is high ranking and surely knows these plans, but he has refused to tell you which town is the target of the impending enemy attack. However, rats have begun to chew at the spy and he is in agony. You could do nothing and leave him to the rats until he reveals this information. He would almost certainly die from this, but you and your soldiers could then protect the town from the surprise attack, saving hundreds of innocent lives.
Leave enemy spy to the rats
Save
hundreds of lives
Rescue spy from rats
Save no one
in the town
FILLER DILEMMAS
1. Insurance Fraud
You have a cell phone but it is old and you do not like it very much. It is worn out and ugly, and it does not have the ability to use new ring-tones. The other day you saw a new one that you would like to have. It is much nicer and even takes pictures and allows you to access the Internet. However, you cannot buy it because you do not have enough money. It occurs to you that you have insurance on your current phone. You also realize that if you called your cell phone company and told them that your cell phone was broken, the insurance will pay you for the cost of replacing it. This is one of the reasons that cellular phone insurance is so expensive. However, it would allow you to purchase the new cell phone that you like at almost no cost to you.
Defraud cell phone company Get new cell phone
Do nothing
Keep old cell phone
2. Employee Morale
You are involved in important corporate negotiations regarding the purchase of your company. If your company is bought, you stand to profit handsomely. However, the morale of your coworkers is very low and this could negatively impact the chances that your company will be bought. You could lie to the prospective buyers about the morale of the employees at this company. This would almost guarantee that your company would be bought. Consequently, you would make enough money to retire.
Lie about employee morale Sell company
Tell the truth about morale Reduced chance of selling
3. Been caught Stealin'
You are going through some financially rough times. You have lost you job and were recently divorced. As you try to balance your budget, you realize that you don't have enough money to both pay your bills and buy groceries. It occurs to you that you could steal food from the grocery store rather than pay for it, and still have enough money left to pay your bills. This would allow you to eat and to maintain your credit rating, since you will not have failed to pay your debts. Having a good credit rating is important to finding a new job.
Steal food
Pay your bills
Buy food
Default on bills
4. Illegal Lunch
You are a lawyer working on a big case. The judge presiding over the trial happens to be someone you knew from law school. The two of you were rather friendly back then, but now, decades later, it seems that your old friend barely remembers you. You know that your side in this case will not win based on the facts alone. You're quite sure that if you were to talk to him over lunch, you could jog her memory and she would begin to see you as an old buddy. Your meeting with this judge would definitely alter the outcome of the case in your favor.
Meet with judge
Help win case
Only meet professionally
Fight
case on facts alone
5. Donation
You are at home one day when the mail arrives. You receive a letter from a reputable international aid organization. The letter asks you to make a donation of two hundred dollars to their organization. The letter explains that a two-hundred dollar donation will allow this organization to provide medical attention to some poor people in another part of the world. You have a good job which pays you well. Recently, you paid off the last of your car payments and you inherited your house from your parents. After thinking about it, you realize that you really don't need the two hundred dollars for yourself and that you could easily spare it.
Donate $200
Medical attention to
the poor
Keep $200
Less medical
attention to poor
6. Sculpture
You are visiting the sculpture garden of a wealthy art collector. The garden is built into the side of a hill and has multiple levels that overlook one another. As you are standing on one of the upper levels looking down at one of the lower levels, you see that an old gardener is about to be seriously injured by a runaway lawnmower. The old gardener is almost completely deaf and does not see the lawnmower coming. The only way to save the workman's life is to push one of the art collector's prized sculptures down into the path of the lawnmower. This will stop the lawnmower before it hurts the old gardener, but it will destroy the lawnmower and the statue as well.
Push sculpture
Prevent
gardener's injuries
Leave sculpture in place
Gardener
gets seriously injured
7. Single Mom
You are a single mother working as an assistant accountant at a successful company. However, you are having difficulty providing for your family on your current salary alone. You have been passed over for promotion in favor of another accountant whom you do not like due to their deceitful ways. One day at work you realize that this other employee has been embezzling from the company. They have diverted large amounts of money out of the company's account into a private account of their own. You know that if you reported this crime to management, this employee would be fired and prosecuted, and that you would then receive the promotion. This extra money from your new position would help you take care of your kids.
Report theft
Receive promotion
Keep quiet
Struggle to provide
for family
8) Résumé
You have been trying to find a job lately without much success. It becomes apparent to you that you would be more likely to get hired if you had a more impressive resume. This is a problem, though, because you were fired from a job several years ago. However, you were fired because you accidentally walked in on your boss cheating on his wife. You could leave out the fact that you had been fired from your resume in order to make it more impressive. By doing this you will almost certainly manage to get hired. This new job will be crucial to your long-term career plans.
Leave out information
Get new job
Include information
Unlikely to
get job
9. Plasma Screen
Your friend tells you about an opportunity to make some fast money. He plans to steal a shipment of plasma screen TVs from a local electronics store. He also knows someone who works there that has told your friend how to get in and avoid the security cameras. Your friend wants you to drive your van to the robbery and use it to load the TVs. You will then drive him to where he is going to unload the TVs. In exchange for this, he will give you a cut of the money after the TVs have been sold.
Help steal TVs
Make easy money
Deny friend's request
Make no
money
10. Taxes
You are the owner of a small business. Your company is making ends meet, but it is not terribly profitable. You would like very much to buy the new sports car that you saw your neighbor driving the other day. However, it is beyond your price range. It occurs to you that you could lower your taxes by pretending that some of your personal expenses are business expenses. For example, you could pretend that the stereo in your bedroom is being used in the lounge at the office, or that dinners out with your wife are dinners with clients. This would allow you to hide enough money from the IRS to buy the new car.
Hide personal expenses
Buy new
car
Report personal expenses
Keep old
car
11. Stock Tip
You are a management consultant working on a case for a large corporate client. You have access to confidential information that would be very useful to investors. You have a friend who plays the stock market. You owe this friend a sizable sum of money. By providing her with certain confidential information you could help her make a lot of money, considerably more that you owe her. If you did this, she would cancel your debt. Releasing information in this way would cause other investors to lose a great deal of money, but it would alleviate your debt.
Release information
Cancel your
debt
Hold information
Remain indebted
12. Lost Wallet
You are walking down the street when you come across a wallet lying on the ground. You look around, but the street is deserted. After opening the wallet, you find that it contains several hundred dollars in cash as well as the owner's driver's license. From the pictures and other items in the wallet it's very clear that the wallet's owner is elderly and just cashed their social security check. You, on the other hand, though you are not rich, you are financially comfortable. You consider sending the wallet back to the owner without the cash, keeping the cash for yourself.
Keep the cash
Have more money
Send cash back
Have less money
13. Collateral Damage
You are a young lawyer who has been working for a prestigious law firm in a large city. For years you have sacrificed and put work before anything else, even your personal life. Now, however, you have been invited to the partners' board meeting. The only reason that a non-partner is ever invited to a meeting like this is to be promoted to partner. This would be a huge step up for you allowing you to take some time for yourself and not work quite so much. As you are driving to work, however, traffic is very slow and you are coming close to running late as you approach a traffic light that you hate because it takes forever to change. It is turning yellow, and if you are caught, you will be late for your own promotion and that would look extremely bad. You speed up to get through the light when you see an old man crossing in front of you, blocking the way. If you stop to let him cross, you will miss most of the meeting and lose your promotion, but if you keep going you will run over the old man and probably kill him.
Run over old man
Reach meeting
on time
Stop for old man
Arrive late to
meeting
14) Van o' Death
You are driving along when you notice a person slowly crossing the road ahead at the crosswalk. There is a yield to pedestrian sign, so he has the right of way. You also notice that the driver of the mini-van in the lane next to you is distracted. She is turning to face her children in the back because they are being a nuisance. The driver is therefore unaware of the pedestrian just ahead. The mini-van is traveling too fast to stop before it reaches the crosswalk. The pedestrian is talking on a cell phone and does not see that the oncoming mini-van is not coming to a stop. You realize that you could run this mini-van off the road into a telephone pole. This would save the pedestrian's life, but would also certainly kill the family inside the mini-van.
Run van off road
Save pedestrian
Let van stay on road
Save family