- A runaway train is about to hit five people
tied up on the tracks.
You can pull a lever that will switch the train
to a different track, but on that track, one person is tied.
Would you pull the lever to save the five, killing the one,
or would you do nothing, letting the five get run over?
We asked 16 people what they would do.
The answers may shock you.
Tell me what's going through your head right now?
- So there's no way to kill all six, huh?
- Okay, uh, we're done with this guy. Uh, thank you.
- Do I know any of the people
on the tracks? - No.
- Do I know any of their family or friends?
- No, there is no connection between you
and these people whatsoever.
- Okay, well, I'm sure if I pulled up my Facebook,
I could find a connection.
- These people don't exist.
- Then why do we care about saving them?
- I don't know.
- I'd pull the lever. - I see.
- And then I'd pull out my gun.
- Oh. - Then I would shoot the ropes
binding this guy to the tracks
so he, too, could be free.
- What if, uh, you don't have a gun?
- Why wouldn't I have my gun?
- (sputters) I don't know. I'm, I'm just gonna take a break.
- Yeah, I'd flip the switch. - Mm.
- And then I'd flip it back again.
- Oh. - And then
I'd flip it back and forth a few more times.
- Isn't that a bit twisted?
- No, no, no, no, no.
Because if I flip the switch and walk away,
this guy, he's layin' there just waiting to get rickrolled.
But if I flip it back and forth,
no one really knows what's gonna happen,
which is giving this guy a shred of hope to hold onto
until the very end, when he gets rickrolled.
- That's not what that means.
- It's tragic either way,
but it's five times more tragic if you do nothing.
- But what if that one person was someone very famous,
let's say Taylor Swift, for example.
- It would be a major loss,
but those five people have gotta die.
- Correct.
- By switching to a different track,
that could end in a derailment,
which would be far more disastrous
than five people getting killed.
- What if you knew it wouldn't derail?
- Then that would also mean I would know
I was sleeping and dreaming,
and it didn't really matter what I did in this situation.
- Okay.
- This is easy. Let the five people get run over.
- Explain your thought process.
- If I save these five people, they would owe me big time.
But people are ungrateful.
I'd be lucky if they said, "Kiss my butt,"
let alone, "Thank you."
So I'm just trying to avoid feeling taken for granted here.
- I would do nothing.
- Is that the morally superior option?
- No, it's just I have enough self-awareness to know
that in this situation, I would just freeze
and probably make a sound like, (gurgles)
and all the while there'd be some inappropriate song
going through my head like,
♪ Come on, baby, do the locomotion ♪
Because that's how my brain works, Richard.
- Clearly, The Joker wants me to switch the track
because he wants this one guy dead,
'cause it's Batman. - Sure.
- I'm lettin' the train go,
and it's gonna run over these five people.
- Okay, thank you. You can, you can leave now.
- Why can't the train stop?
- The brakes have failed.
- Why didn't the maintenance crew check the brakes
before the trip?
- I don't know, but that's not the point.
- The point is we wouldn't be in this situation
if people had just done their jobs.
So whatever happens here, I'm not taking the blame.
- Without any meaningful context,
what is supposed to be a moral crisis
is really just a second grade math problem.
Which number is bigger, one or five?
- Right. - Five is bigger than one.
I guess we should run over the one person.
Let's watch, kids. (imitates bodies squishing)
- Okay.
- One might assume that human life is priceless,
which we could represent
with the mathematical abstraction of infinity.
Both equal infinity.
- While you were explaining, the five people got run over.
- Could they at least hear my rationale?
- They could not.
- Ah, that's a shame.
- Guy on the side track, uh, do you mind if I kill you?
Ooh, he really does not wanna get squished.
Five people over here, how are you feeling?
- Wow, this really reminds me of something traumatic
that actually happened to me.
- Oh no.
- My Aunt Hilda brought a tuna casserole
to a big church potluck dinner,
but before anyone could put any on their plates,
I ate the whole thing.
- Well, it's not a perfect analogy, but-
- It just tasted so bad, like- - Okay.
- I'm sorry, I just, I need a minute. (wheezes)
- I would just stand back and do nothing.
- Why is that?
- If I pull the lever, I'm gonna mess it up somehow,
and there's gonna be some unintended consequence,
something that I didn't realize would happen
if I pulled the lever,
and then the train is gonna explode or something.
- It's impossible to mess up.
- Okay, I've heard that before.
- I'm telling you, it's literally-
- And I am telling you,
you do not wanna test my ability to mess things up.
- I believe you.
- What if I save the five people,
but then one of 'em turns out to be a serial killer?
Then in the long run,
my decision will have done more harm than good.
- Let's say none of them are serial killers.
- Okay, but what if all five of them are organ donors?
And so by running them all over,
I'm saving dozens of people who need transplants.
- Okay, well-
- What if I switch the tracks,
and this guy gets run over, but he doesn't die.
And then that is the inciting incident
for him becoming a supervillain with super train powers.
- Wow.
- I guess I would just pull the lever
and sacrifice the one guy to save the five.
- You do pull the lever?
- Yeah.
- Well, I'm sorry to tell you
that you accidentally pulled the lever
that causes the train to explode.
- I knew it!
- Train Man, Trolley-Tron, The Track Tyrant.
- Enough already. This is not a joke.
- I'm not joking.
My point is we can never truly know
the ripple effects that our actions will have.
All we can really do is do the best that we know how to do
and hope it all works out.
- You make a good-
- What if these five people wanted to get run over,
and now they're really mad at me?
- Okay, we've got enough footage. I'm done.
♪ A stranger's come to town ♪
♪ They call him Mr. Frank James ♪