The Footbridge Dilemma

If you had to choose between saving the life of one person or the life of five people, what choice would you make? This is the question asked by the ubiquitous “trolley problem” that presents the choice between allowing a runaway trolley to hit five people or flipping a switch to change the tracks so it hits only one person. For many, the decision would be almost knee-jerk, that saving five people would be the more appropriate choice. However, what if to save those five people you would have to push the one individual off a bridge yourself instead of simply throwing a switch? This scenario is called the “footbridge dilemma” and is an elaboration of the trolley problem that aims to make the situation more personal by engaging the actor fully and …show more content…
To do so, research that shows the effect of deficits in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex on decision making will be presented, which allow for the presentation of research shows that there is a connection between deficits in this brain region and psychopathic traits in individuals. Therefore, the tendency towards the utilitarian decision-making model will be shown to be mediated by demonstrated differences in areas of the prefrontal cortex held by psychopathic individuals that provide for greater tendencies towards utilitarian judgements.
To establish a framework for the information being presented in this paper, let us briefly consider a few pieces of moral dilemmas integral to understanding the methods of the following studies. First, the difference between deontological and utilitarian judgements. Deontology posits that the morality of an action need be evaluated based on the quality of the action itself and not through the consequences that result from it. Actions are “intrinsically wrong if they violate moral rules”, especially those rules that specify the rights of others or one’s duties and obligations. Deontology does