Deep in philosophy TikTok, a new ethical dilemma has swept the internet and sparked intense debate. On April 24th, creator @waitbutwhy posted a question that quickly went viral.
“Everyone in the world has to take a private vote by pressing a red or blue button. If more than 50% of people press the blue button, everyone survives. If less than 50% of people press the blue button, only people who pressed the red button survive. Which button would you press?”
Currently, the vote stands at 42% red and 58% blue, but it’s hard to tell how people would respond if the situation actually presented itself. But people definitely have made the effort to put themselves in those shoes. The trend has exploded online, mainly due to people engaging in online debate on which choice is “right”.
But there isn’t really an answer to that.
There’s no safe option here. Press red and potentially lose your family, your friends, your partner, or even your child. Press blue and potentially lose all of that as well as your life. Your choice depends on your trust in other people and your hope in humanity as a whole.
People choose blue out of a belief in collective action. Their trust in humanity outweighs fear and provides them with an optimistic mindset. If everyone cooperates, everyone survives. There’s a willingness to risk personal safety for the group as it’s the more emotionally and morally driven answer here. Because of the potential sacrifice one would make to press the button, some people would see it as an act of selflessness and compassion. An option driven by hope and community.
However, others would disagree. Some might see this as naïve, a blind assumption that strangers will cooperate. To press the blue button would be to rely heavily on your faith in humanity and it’s risky because one selfish majority could ruin it. Some people online would call the blue button pressers unrealistic.
Those people online namely being the red button pushers. Red button pushers prioritize self-preservation, approaching the dilemma with a strategic, survival mindset and maybe a sprinkle of distrust in strangers. After all, you can only control your own choice at the end of the day and the fear that other people will betray cooperation lingers in heavy moments like this one. To many people, this response feels more logical. It’s realistic, smart, practical, and calculated.
But of course, the internet is a breeding ground for disagreements so while red-button supporters say blue- button supporters are naïve, the inverse is seen as selfish. By pressing the red button, are they not contributing to the exact outcome people fear? This creates a cycle of distrust. If everyone thinks selfishly, everyone loses. The comment thread is flooded with people saying the red-button people prove society is doomed.
All opinions aside, at the end of the day, there really is no right or wrong answer. But it does pose another question, why do trends like this blow up so much?
This simple concept turned into a huge ethical debate with people instantly turning to analyze themselves and others. It’s easy to argue about online, even easier to project your political and social belief onto it, fueling the fire further.
Ethical thought experiments like this, the trolley problem, Prisoner’s Dilemma, etc. are good mental exercises. They exercise your ability to think, problem solve, and force you to analyze your own moral reasoning. If you do them right and really think about what decisions you’d make, they can reveal how differently people think under pressure.
There’s no objectively “safe” answer. Although the experiment at first glance depends on trust, when you look deeper at people’s responses it’s interesting how no one accredits that to their reasoning. Both sides express their decisions as rational and based in logic. This itself says a lot about human nature. Do the sides actually both think that or is that just the only type of reasoning we view as valid?
We can thank @waitbutwhy for our newest lens through which to view humanity and the internet will lie in wait for the next big ethical dilemma. In the meantime, which button would you choose?