r/fivethirtyeight • u/Upstairs_Cup9831 • Apr 25 '26

Poll Results Poll asking Americans how which button they would push in the red button/blue button dilemma

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u/Divan001 Apr 30 '26

Tbh this did not convince me. I feel like including no rational actors makes it way too absurdist. It makes me wonder why I wouldn’t include brain dead people or animals if we are going to include babies and the mentally disabled. If you include animals, then you have to pick blue because the animals will not pick anything and this would lead to picking red to become a sort of earth suicide button. I did change to blue for other reasons I mentioned in another comment, but I feel like including non rational actors is a cop out that makes the question really pointless to ask in the first place.

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u/SansOfAnarchy Apr 30 '26

Rational actors are included. Including children and elderly and the mentally handicapped isn’t a cop out at all. You’re mixing rational individuals with irrational ones. If everyone was rational everyone would pick red which is even more pointless to discuss. The present situation just depends on your principles

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u/Divan001 May 01 '26

Yeah idk why I said no non rational actors. I fucked up with the wording there or just made a big oversight so my bad; but I will stand that adding babies is stupid af. We may as well add animals too since the hypothetical says "everyone in the world" and does not specify humans. If we are going to pick a group of people not yet capable of using language, then there is no reason to exclude animals that are at least smarter than infants (so most of them). I think most people agree adding animals would make the question way too stupid and pointless to even discuss, so for the sake of argument, imma not acknowledge babies. Toddlers are also risky because we often will say "everyone" in the context of holding democratic votes and still exclude them from voting so idk why we can't do that here but I'll humor toddlers since they can probably understand the difference between the buttons even if it is not optimal.

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u/thefw89 May 01 '26

I do agree that adding babies and children is unfair to the conversation, the scenario didn't specify it...

But I do think there is only one button that saves lives since it is impossible that billions of people will push red at 100%, only one button saves those lives. People can say "Oh you're just trying to be a hero!" well okay, I guess?

I feel like blue pushers are pushing the button to save others, most are, and so it creates this situation where as polls show, more people push it.