Moral Sense Test
This test consists of thirteen stories. You will read and answer a question
about each one. There will be a response scale at the bottom of the screen --
move the slider until you are satisfied with you answer, and press the button
to submit your response. Your answer can lie anywhere along the scale.
1. You are the leader of a small group of soldiers. You are on your way back
from a completed mission deep in enemy territory when one of your men has
stepped in trap that has been set by the enemy and is badly injured. The trap
is connected to a radio device that by now has alerted the enemy to your
presence. They will soon be on their way. If the enemy finds your injured man
they will torture him and kill him. He begs you not to leave him behind, but if
you try to take him with you your entire group will be captured. The only way
to prevent this injured soldier from being tortured is to shoot him yourself.
Shooting this soldier is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
2. A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workmen who will
be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. You are on a footbridge
over the tracks, in between the approaching trolley and the five workmen.
Next to you on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. The
only way to save the lives of the five workmen is to push this stranger off the
bridge and onto the tracks below where his large body will stop the trolley.
The stranger will die if you do this, but the five workmen will be saved.
Pushing the stranger onto the tracks is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
3. You are negotiating with a powerful and determined terrorist who is about
to set off a bomb in a crowded area. Your one advantage is that you have his
teen-age son in your custody. There is only one thing that you can do to stop
him from detonating his bomb, which will kill thousands of people if detonated.
To stop him, you must contact him over the satellite hook-up that he has
established and, in front of the camera, break one of his son's arms and then
threaten to break the other one if he does not give himself up. Breaking the
terrorist's son's arm is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
4. It is wartime and you and your two children, ages eight and five, are living
in a territory that has been occupied by the enemy. At the enemy's
headquarters is a doctor who performs painful experiments on humans that
inevitably lead to death. He intends to perform experiments on one of your
children, but he will allow you to choose which of your children will be
experimented upon. You have twenty-four hours to bring one of your children
to his laboratory. If you refuse to bring one of your children to his laboratory
he will find them both and experiment on both of them. Bringing one of your
children to the laboratory is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
5. You are the leader of a mountaineering expedition that is stranded in the
wilderness. Your expedition includes a family of six that has a genetically
caused vitamin deficiency. A few people's kidneys contain large amounts of
this vitamin. There is one such person in your party. The only way to save the
lives of the six members of this family is to remove one of this man's kidneys
so that the necessary vitamins may be extracted from it. The man will not die
if you do this, but his health will be compromised. The man is opposed to this
plan, but you have the power to do as you see fit. Forcibly removing this
man's kidney is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
6. You are on a cruise ship when there is a fire on board, and the ship has to
be abandoned. The lifeboats are carrying many more people than they were
designed to carry. The lifeboat you are in is sitting dangerously low in the
water -- a few inches lower and it will sink. The seas start to get rough, and
the boat begins to fill with water. If nothing is done it will sink before the
rescue boats arrive and everyone on board will die. However, there is an
injured person who will not survive in any case. If you throw that person
overboard the boat will stay afloat and the remaining passengers will be
saved. Throwing this person overboard is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
7. Enemy soldiers have taken over your village. They have orders to kill all
remaining civilians. You and some of your townspeople have sought refuge in
the cellar of a large house. Outside you hear the voices of soldiers who have
come to search the house for valuables. Your baby begins to cry loudly. You
cover his mouth to block the sound. If you remove your hand from his mouth
his crying will summon the attention of the soldiers who will kill you, your child,
and the others hiding out in the cellar. To save yourself and the others you
must smother your child to death. Smothering your child is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
8. You, your husband, and your four children are crossing a mountain range
on your return journey to your homeland. You have inadvertently set up camp
on a local clan's sacred burial ground. The leader of the clan says that
according to the local laws, you and your family must be put to death.
However, he will let yourself, your husband, and your three other children live
if you yourself will kill your oldest son. Killing your oldest son is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
9. You are the leader of a small army that consists of warriors from two tribes,
the hill tribe and the river tribe. You belong to neither tribe. During the night a
hill tribesman got into an argument with a river tribesman and murdered him.
The river tribe will attack the hill tribe unless the murderer is put to death, but
the hill tribe refuses to kill one of its own warriors. The only way for you to
avoid a war between the two tribes that will costs hundreds of lives is to
publicly execute the murderer by cutting off his head with your sword. Cutting
off this man's head is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
10. A viral epidemic has spread across the globe killing millions of people.
You have developed two substances in your home laboratory. You know that
one of them is a vaccine, but you don't know which one. You also know that
the other one is deadly. Once you figure out which substance is the vaccine
you can use it to save millions of lives. You have with you two people who are
under your care, and the only way to identify the vaccine is to inject each of
these people with one of the two substances. One person will live, the other
will die, and you will be able to start saving lives with your vaccine. Killing one
of these people with a deadly injection is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
11. You are part of a group of ecologists who live in a remote stretch of jungle.
The entire group, which includes eight children, has been taken hostage by a
group of paramilitary terrorists. One of the terrorists takes a liking to you. He
informs you that his leader intends to kill you and the rest of the hostages the
following morning. He is willing to help you and the children escape, but as an
act of good faith he wants you to kill one of your fellow hostages whom he
does not like. If you refuse his offer all the hostages including the children and
yourself will die. If you accept his offer then the others will die in the morning
but you and the eight children will escape. Killing one of your fellow hostages
is:
A. Forbidden
B. Permissible
C. Obligatory
12. You are a waiter. You overhear one of your customers say that he is
about to go to jail and that in his last forty-eight hours of freedom he plans to
infect as many people as possible with HIV. You know him well enough to
know that he is telling the truth and that he has access to many potential
victims. You happen to know that he has a very strong allergy to poppy seeds.
If he eats even one he will go into convulsions and have to be hospitalized.
For at least forty-eight hours. Causing this man to have a serious allergy
attack is:
Count number of A’s & C’s
More A’s indicates emotional, 'deontological' decision making
More C’s indicates rational utilitarianism
