A lifeboat holds 8 people maximum. There are 9 survivors. Someone must go overboard or everyone drowns.
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Results based on anonymous votes from users worldwide.
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This is the classic 'trade-off in extremis' — the math (8 vs 9 dead) seems clear, but the choice asks who picks. Every selection criterion is its own moral position. Pushing someone off requires acting; refusing leads to all dying. One view treats the larger number saved as the goal; the other refuses to act as the executioner of any specific person.
Why people split
People split on whether action carries moral weight beyond outcomes. Voting to push someone off makes you the agent of their death even if the rationale is good; refusing leaves the deaths as a shared fate no one chose. Both routes have moral residue — the disagreement is about which residue you accept.
Educational perspective, not professional advice.
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What the split says
With 100% choosing “Vote to push someone off” (1 total votes), this result leans toward a hard but certain outcome among SplitVote voters. That does not make that option correct; it shows which cost they are currently more willing to accept.
Worth asking yourself
- Could you live with the outcome you skipped?
- Who pays the price you avoid?