Agreed. It may sound harsh but I'd rather save one person I care about as opposed to 10, 100, or even a 1000 strangers. While the term escapes me at the moment, in psychology it is based upon feelings we have towards certain groups of people. We would be most likley to respond to someone who is a relative before a stranger. More likley to respond to a person of similarity (race, sex, age) and finally we'd be more likley to respond a "good" looking stranger before a normal. Essentially it goes familiarity, similarity, and finally attactivness as far as responding to other in times of need.
Interesting hypothetical. I can personally say that I would save whoever needed saving first. I know where my loved are going so I have peace there. I am not in any way saying that I am tossing them to the side to play hero. I am saying that everyone is in need of being saved in this situation and you find those in the most need of saving first and go for them.
The loved one, with no doubt. I've actually had a chance to save someone that was a huge part of my life from death, but it was too late before i did anything to help, as i was very young and confused about the situation. (long story. I really don't want to go into detail) Now it will be a part of my life that i will always remember, and will always be thinking, "Hey, i could've actually helped them. =/"
I think it really depends how close the person is to me. I couldn't imagine saving even 1000 people if I let my little sister die. But if this is a friend, or maybe even an aunt or somebody I don't live with, I couldn't justify letting 1000 people die for someone I don't know too well. For 10 people, I might save the aunt of friend. For 100 people, I might save my best friend or my favorite aunt or uncle over them, but nobody further than that. It's a tricky situation.
Loved one before 1000 strangers. Not loved but appreciated friends before maybe 10... Other than that, group before acquaintance.
But there's seriously no way I'd save strangers before someone I love, because with the few people I do love, I'd really lose a great deal of what's good in my life if one of them were no longer there. Friends on an "I like you, but I don't need you" level would go before probably less than 10 strangers. Morals kicking in there.
But there's seriously no way I'd save strangers before someone I love, because with the few people I do love, I'd really lose a great deal of what's good in my life if one of them were no longer there.
What about the strangers loved ones? 1000 families would be devastated! And there are on average 3-4 people in 1 household so 3000-4000 people would be hurt. Thats not including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. So you could be looking at 10000 people affected by your disission.
Here is some more food for thought. What if there was is a third option being that you could save your loved one and the 1000 strangers in exchange for your own life.
Yes. But I'll admit to being selfish when it comes to loved ones.
Especially since there are a few people I really don't know how I'd live without. People I do not know are not my direct concern. General concern, yes. But with direct pain hitting me to avoid direct pain hitting them, I'd rather take the indirect pain of knowing that many people died because of that decision.
It would be different if it was my own life, though. My life vs. 1000 lives? I'm the one going then.
I'd probably save the family member before even 10,000 people because they are close to me and I probably woudn't be alive if it wasn't for them. And to me, If the random people die, how would it affect me?
Got ninja'd there, so uhm... The yes was to the last post on the previous page.
Here is some more food for thought. What if there was is a third option being that you could save your loved one and the 1000 strangers in exchange for your own life
Oh hey, bonus to what I said in above post. Loved ones are saved too. Yay. Though really, when I've been deep down in a depression, I've clung to life because I know people who care about me would get hurt if I offed myself. >_> But with the lives of 1000 people plus some loved ones, I think they'd pretty much see why I'd do it.
Another. You and your loved ones (who ever you love or care about, a little (5-20?) group of people like your family and friends) vs. 1000 random strangers? Either you and the ones who care about you and you care about die, or the 1000 people do.
Ethically speaking, the correct thing to do is to save the most human lives. But at the same time we are very selfish and deep down do not care about any one else but ourselves. If I was given the choice to choose between my family and 1000 strangers, I would pick my family. I would however try to atone for my decsion.
If I hand to pick between saving the 1000+my family or saving myself, I would choose to kill myself. Probably because I couldn't handle the guilt of knowing that sacrificed everyone that I loved and the lives of 1000 strangers.
For the third question, I would rather let 1000 people die than every one that I and my care about and myself. I value the lives of family and (most importantly) myself. As stated in the first paragraph I would try to redeem myself.
