Trolley Problem Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A philosopher argues that some actions remain impermissible even when they would improve the total outcome. Which approach does this most closely reflect?
Hedonism
Descriptive relativism
Deontological ethics
Psychological egoism
2. Five moon colonists can be saved only by redirecting a trolley toward one colonist. A contractualist analysis would characteristically ask which question?
Which option produces the most pleasure after assigning every feeling a number?
Which option is statistically most popular among observers?
Which action matches the decision-maker’s strongest immediate desire?
Which principle could be justified to each person affected by it?
3. What major feature does the footbridge variant add to the standard switch case?
Uncertainty about how many people are on each track
A choice between saving people and protecting property
A legal duty to operate the trolley system
The prospect of using direct personal force against a person
4. In the classic switch version of the trolley problem, what choice does the person at the lever face?
Push one person from a bridge or allow five people to fall from it
Allow the trolley to continue toward five people or divert it onto a track with one person
Choose whether to punish a driver who has already caused an accident
Decide which of two equally crowded trolleys should arrive first
5. A city claims that every resident must surrender every nonessential possession to fund tiny additional trolley-safety improvements, continuing as long as any risk remains. Which objection to maximizing consequentialism does this resemble?
The objection that consequences cannot be observed
The objection that duties require written contracts
The objection from cultural relativism
The demandingness objection
6. Mira feels worse about pulling a lever that redirects a trolley than about leaving the lever untouched, even when each choice leads to one death. Which distinction is most relevant?
The distinction between act and rule utilitarianism
The fact-versus-value distinction
The doing-versus-allowing distinction
The distinction between moral realism and anti-realism
7. A surgeon could kill one healthy patient and distribute that patient’s organs to five others. Why is this case often compared with trolley cases?
It tests whether saving more lives can justify using one person as a resource
It establishes that doctors and trolley operators have identical duties
It shows that medical decisions never involve consequences
It demonstrates that consent is irrelevant whenever five lives are at stake
8. Which ethical framework is most directly associated with choosing the action expected to produce the best overall consequences?
Ethical egoism
Moral particularism
Consequentialism
Divine command theory
9. Two conductors make the same careful decision, but one trolley’s brakes work and the other’s unexpectedly fail. Observers blame the second conductor more because the outcome was worse. What concept does this illustrate?
The veil of ignorance
Resultant moral luck
The naturalistic fallacy
Preference falsification
10. A trolley is headed toward five opera singers and can be diverted toward one circus clown. Assume their occupations make no difference to any later consequences. Under strictly impartial act-consequentialist reasoning, what should the analysis do?
Favor the opera singers because their work is traditionally prestigious
Ignore the occupations and compare the relevant consequences impartially
Favor the clown because only one profession is represented on that track
Refuse to compare outcomes involving different professions
11. An alien lever will create either one flourishing future person or one hundred future people whose lives are only slightly worth living. Which area of philosophy most directly studies this comparison?
Population ethics
Philosophy of language
Aesthetics
Formal epistemology
12. A time-loop trolley sends philosophers back to debate whether statements such as “You ought to pull the lever” can be objectively true. Which branch of ethics are they now discussing?
Metaethics
Applied aesthetics
Descriptive economics
Political geography
13. A space trolley approaches five highly sophisticated robots and can be diverted toward one human. Before simply counting beings, which issue is most important to clarify?
Whether the robots possess morally relevant capacities or moral status
Whether the trolley has a human or robotic manufacturer
Whether robots are more expensive to replace than the track
Whether the robots and human were built or born on the same planet
14. How does the doctrine of double effect commonly distinguish diverting a trolley from intentionally harming someone as a means?
It treats any foreseeable death as fully intentional
It distinguishes harm intended as a means from harm foreseen as a side effect
It permits harm only when the person affected gives consent
It judges actions entirely by the number of people saved
15. A malfunctioning lever offers two routes. Route A will certainly result in two deaths. Route B has a 25% chance of five deaths and a 75% chance of none. If only expected fatalities matter, which option has the lower expected toll?
Route A, because certainty always produces the lower expected toll
The routes are equal because both could cause deaths
Route A, because two is less than five
Route B, because its expected toll is 1.25 rather than 2
16. In a loop-track variant, the trolley will hit five people unless diverted. On the side loop, it hits one person whose body stops it before it returns to the five. Why is this detail philosophically important?
It removes all consequences from the decision
It makes the five responsible for the trolley
It raises the possibility that the one person’s harm is being used as a means
It proves that diverting is legally required