Comparing Hypothetical and Real-Life Trolley Problems: Commentary on Bostyn, Sevenhant, and Roets (2018)

[First paragraph] The study by Bostyn, Sevenhant, and Roets (2018) was not the first to compare hypothetical and real-life trolley problems (see Gold, Colman, & Pulford, 2014; Gold, Pulford, & Colman, 2014, 2015). Bostyn et al. changed the victims to mice and the harm to electric shock. Some of the participants decided whether to press a button to redirect an electric shock from a cage containing five mice to a cage containing one; others imagined that they were faced with the same decision and were asked: “Would you press the button?” The researchers found that 84% of participants pressed the button, compared to only 66% who predicted that they would.