fubarobfusco comments on Link: Study finds that using a foreign language changes moral decisions - Less Wrong

8 Post author: Vladimir_Golovin 30 April 2014 05:26AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (17)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: fubarobfusco 02 May 2014 03:16:39PM 1 point [-]

Some other ways to tell which of these worlds we're living in ...

  1. Test a blunt description ("The trolley will hit the five people and kill them") versus a more verbose one, possibly with extraneous technical detail ("The vehicle, whose mass is N metric tons, will collide with the five individuals with a force of M newtons. Every similar collision on record has resulted in instant fatality.")

  2. Occupy the subjects' working memory by asking them to memorize a phone number or pattern of symbols before the question.

  3. Occupy the subjects' attention by asking them the question while bouncing a basketball, or balancing on one foot, or doing some other activity that requires continuous physical attention.

Comment author: ThisSpaceAvailable 06 May 2014 12:15:51AM 1 point [-]

Another thing to look into is how much giving the people names changes things. Or even back stories.

"Will you let Bob Naylor, a 48-year-old mechanic who is working overtime on the trolley track to save up to pay for his daughter's wedding, die, or will you spare him by swerving the trolley into..."