Chances of Death = X, Do You Save a Friend?

[intensity]

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Stranger about to be hit by bus, I knock him out of the way.

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Que someone with .gif skills to add a bus about to run over the girl into noah's avatar.

[Los Feliz Slim]

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People saying 15% for parents or less than 100% for wife/girlfriend, etc. are either not thinking about this or are strange in my book.

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My parents are like 70 and my family needs me a TON more than the larger family needs my parents. They would never want me to sacrifice my life for theirs.

Didn't include wife or daughter, I would take 100% for either of them.

[punkass]

If spontaneous situation like getting them loose on subway tracks..For most anyone I know close and not so close, my instincts would be to help them. And I'm fairly certain that I'd follow my instincts.

I can't determine percentages and whatnot, but it'd be higher than the cold bastards earlier in this thread.

[AlfilRey]

A lot of people are visualizing a situation where their instincts may simplify their decision for them. e.g. saving someone from getting knocked down, saving someone from a burning building, from drowning, etc.

I think it would be more interesting if the scenario allowed a much colder approach.

So...what would be the % chance in this case:

You and stranger/friend/best friend/significant other/spouse/sibling/parent is in a locked room, having been captured.

YOU are then given a gun by those holding you hostage. For simplicity sake, lets assume the gun has 10 barrels.

You are told the following:

1. If you press it to your head and pull the trigger, your friend (and you if you survive) will go free.

2. If you don´t do this, you will go free, but your friend will be killed (painless, injection lets say)

Now, if the gun has one bullet, it´s a 10% chance, if the gun has two...20%.

In THIS SCENARIO, where the odds are cold, and your instincts don´t set in like in other cases where ppl are drowning, and spontaneous decisions need to be made., what % chance of death will you risk for the categories already discussed?

Also, if it´s a 100% chance of death, lets just assume that you can choose to kill yourself OR be killed, whichever method you prefer.

note: you can be locked up in separate rooms too if you want, but the person you will save if its a 100% death situation WILL know what happened.

[orange]

100% for family members and 100% for a certain few of my friends.

[Reef]

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100% for family members and 100% for a certain few of my friends.

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same here..


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but what about for say a 70 year old grandma/grandpa that you're very close to?

[Lazy Meatball]

100% for brother and sister, and pretty up there for my brother in law since my nephew was born. Then maybe the 5 month old nepehew. The next tier is for my parents, but it's a considerable drop since they're 60 years old. A few close friends would garner maybe 35%. Honestly, extended family isn't even on the map, although we're not a very close family geographically and metaphorically. Alot of this would depend on whether there would be guilt associated with not acting or not.

[SonofDjugashvili]

OK, I am older than most of you, but either I am a selfish bastard (the ex-wives think so for sure) or you guys are all naive/liars. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[almostbusto]

i don't know if a lot of the posters actually thought much about this scenario before posting. it is setup differently from most similar scenarios that have been posted on 2+2 iirc. your chance of saving the person is 100%, so are long as the chances of you dying are less than 100%, you are maximizing the number of lives if you attempt to save.

of course that isn't the only consideration. but just given that fact, anyone i consider a friend i would save at the 50% mark at least. there is a chance i wouldn't do it in practice but that only because thats a completely different scenario (my chance of survival in that case is an estimate and in split second calculations i can only be so sure of my estimation).

but if i was given some time to think the problem through, i would go over 50% from pretty much anyone i liked.

[almostbusto]

-Alfilrey

assuming I had to be the shooter, ie we couldn't bargain on who would do the shooting in any fashion, I would definitely have to do 90% for any friend of mine also locked in the room. i guess i would do 100% for some people, but thats a much harder decision.