The Morality Quiz

[Kerry]

The Morality Quiz

The deepest foundation on which morality is built is the phenomenon of empathy, the understanding that what hurts me would feel the same way to you. And human ego notwithstanding, it's a quality other species share. While it's impossible to directly measure empathy in animals, in humans it's another matter. An example of a dilemma used to study human morality is outlined below. Could you be the one to do the dastardly deed?

The Crying Baby Scenario
It's war time, and you're hiding in a basement with a group of other people. Enemy soldiers are approaching outside and will be drawn to any sound. If you're found, you'll all be killed immediately. A baby hiding with you starts to cry loudly and cannot be stopped. Smothering it to death is the only way to silence it, saving the lives of everyone in the room. Assume that the parents of the baby are unknown and not present and there will be no penalty for killing the child. Could you be the one who smothered it if no one else would?

Take the full quiz with additional scenarios to see how you compare to other time.com readers at time.com/morality and then read how scientists are using these dilemmas to study morality.

Beware Spoiler: At the time I responded to the above Crying Baby Scenario, 26,830 responses had been recorded, of which 44% voted they could not smother the baby and 56% voted they could.

A very interesting, sobering exercise.

With thanks to time.com

[Dagi]

I've already read about this question/scenario.

Given that all of us, that means, the baby too, will be killed immediately in case we are found, it is not a situation where I have to weigh up lives - it's the baby, or the baby plus all the others. So, the right thing to do would be to kill the baby.

But the question was if I was actually capable of smothering the baby. I have only once been in a live threatening situation before, so I think I can hardly imagine what people in such a situation feel like. I would certainly hope for somebody else to do it. But if I'd come to understand in the end that nobody else is going to do it, maybe I would be capable, yes. The fact that the parents are not around sure would "help". A possible punishment would not influence me, since I'm aware of the fact that I would in any case have to deal with my deed for the rest of my life.

[delalluvia]

Sad exercise, but yes, I could smother the baby.  It's dead either way, isn't it?  But being smothered makes its death not in vain, unlike being executed out of hand by a death squad.

I read about this situation in a fictional war novel - however, the baby survived, but was brain damaged.

[moremojo]

Jesus showed by example that it is better to be killed than it is to kill.

[delalluvia]

Jesus showed by example that it is better to be killed than it is to kill.

OK, but remember, in the example the people are hiding from the soldiers.  They don't want to be killed.  If they wanted to be an example, they didn't have to hide and would just wait like lambs for the slaughter.

[moremojo]

OK, but remember, in the example the people are hiding from the soldiers.  They don't want to be killed.  If they wanted to be an example, they didn't have to hide and would just wait like lambs for the slaughter.

Jesus didn't necessarily want to be killed either, yet he submitted to it. One can take active measures to avoid being killed and yet submit to it after all past a certain point, which might include coming across an ethical dilemma that can't easily be resolved.

For the record, I am not a Christian, yet I think one can still admire and learn from Jesus's life and teachings.

[Scott6373]

Didn't y'all see the final episode of M*A*S*H?

[opinionista]

How about putting a hand on the baby's mouth? I think there's probably more than one way to keep the baby quiet without having to kill him/her.

[delalluvia]

Jesus didn't necessarily want to be killed either, yet he submitted to it.

Well, that was because he was supposedly the son of god and he had a destiny to fulfill.  He also had the knowledge that he would be resurrected.  These people don't have divine destinies or the knowledge of any resurrection.

One can take active measures to avoid being killed and yet submit to it after all past a certain point, which might include coming across an ethical dilemma that can't easily be resolved.  For the record, I am not a Christian, yet I think one can still admire and learn from Jesus's life and teachings.

True, but again, what would be the point?  Trying to escape a death squad with an infant is already asking for trouble.

[delalluvia]

How about putting a hand on the baby's mouth? I think there's probably more than one way to keep the baby quiet without having to kill him/her.

I dunno.  I've never tried.    I imagine because the baby is going to be struggling, breathing through its nose and continuing to wail - you can still hear the sounds through someone's palm, try it on yourself - and escape the hand that's keeping it from exercising its lungs to full capacity.  Cutting off the breathing by blocking the nose forces silence as the child is going to be struggling to inhale instead of exhale.