The Lever
Do you pull the lever?
Level 2 · 19 / 20
The Lever
A runaway train car is heading down a track towards five workers who can't hear it coming. You're standing beside a lever. Pull it and the car switches to a side track, where one worker is standing. Nobody else is around. You have about four seconds.
Do you pull the lever?
Then ask
- If you walk away and do nothing, are you responsible for the five?
- Would you still pull it if the one worker were the only person who noticed you standing there?
- Is pulling it easier because a lever is involved rather than your hands?
The classics and some new ones. A scenario, the question it forces, and the follow-ups that make it bite.