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I understand that the wording and the numbers chosen by the experimenters are intended to create two equivelent sitations, but the fact is, they do not. The sen
by spuz 13y ago
I understand that the wording and the numbers chosen by the experimenters are intended to create two equivelent sitations, but the fact is, they do not. The sentence:
"If you choose Medicine A, 400,000 people will die."
Tells you that 400k people will die if you choose medicine A. It says nothing about what will happen to the remaining 200k. I believe it is illogical to assume that the sentence implies the remaining 200k live. Note that if you were to ask me in real life, I'd probably be happy to make that assumption but that doesn't change the fact that it is an assumption based on missing information.
- cortesoft 13y agoI understand your point in terms of formal logic (that saying 400k people will die does not necessitate that the other 200k can't also die). However, the initial sentence that starts the experiment is "Recently, a dangerous new disease has been going around. Without medicine, 600,000 people will die from it. In order to save these people, two types of medicine are being made." When you follow that by saying "If you choose Medicine A, 400,000 people will die", it is not illogical to assume that they don't mean "oh yeah, the other 200k will also die, too" This isn't a Mitch Hedberg joke. In these scenarios, we are expected to make many basic assumptions that aren't included in the scenario. We are safe to assume that there isn't an unmentioned side effect of Medicine B that will leave everyone paralyzed, or that Medicine A won't turn the survivors into zombies.
- bittercynic 13y agoAre you referring to this? "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too." (It's a lot funnier when delivered with good timing than when you read it.) His comedy was very hit-and-miss, but some of it was spectacularly funny.
- cortesoft 13y agoYes, yes I was.
- spuz 13y agoOk, I finally see my mistake. It was skipping over the line "without medicine, 600k people will die from [the disease]" which allows us to account for the remaining 200k.
- logfromblammo 13y agoAssuming vampires and zombies are not involved, life and death are binary states. No one who is living has died, and no one who has died remains living. If 400k people die [from the hypothetical disease], then 200k people will survive [to eventually die from some other cause]. I'm sure this form of problem analysis gives psychological experimenters fits.