While browsing around the web, I ran into a mention of a question from the book, The Book of Horrible Questions. The question was, “Push the red button in front of you and you will be given $10 million. But 100 random people under age 30 from around the world will die of natural causes. You are guaranteed not to know any of the people or ever hear about their deaths. Will you push the button?”

Look Out for Rod Serling!As soon as I read this I recognized it as having been based on an episode of The Twilight Zone. The episode called, “Button, Button” starts with a couple in financial trouble. A stranger comes to their door and hands them a special box. He says that if they press the button, they will receive a large sum of money – but someone they don’t know will die. Eventually, the wife pushes the button over her husband’s objections. The next day the stranger returns, takes back the box and gives them the money. The wife asks him what will happen next. The stranger ominously replies that the button will be reprogrammed and given to someone else – the last line being “It will be offered to someone you do not know.”

According to the book, 55% of those offered this proposition stated that they would push the button. Although you might think that the implausibility of the situation makes this figure hard to believe, it probably is too low. In fact, given the right scenario it is quite easy to believe that many people would push the button. How about this for a little more plausible version:

Suppose that you were offered a job that would pay you millions of dollars but the job required you to create and promote a product that you know would kill a very large percentage of those who used it. Would you still take the job? What if the product had a catchy name like Marlboro?

Thanks to Wikipedia for the description of the episode.

 

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