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The trolley problem is a measure to evaluate psychological reasoning in morality. Using this test, researchers found that increased blood alcohol levels were associated with greater utilitarian responses to the trolley problem. Comment: The trolley problem presents people with a choice of whether or not to sacrifice one life to save 5 lives. The utilitarian response is to sacrifice the 1 life in order to save 5 lives. When presented with this choice, the people in this study were more likely to make a utilitarian response when their blood alcohol level was higher. The reasons for this appear complex, but it helps to understand that in order to save the 5 lives, the person was asked whether or not they would push a person on to the trolley track, resulting in this person dying but also stopping the trolley, saving the 5 other people. This action, while utilitarian, goes against another moral principle: first, do no harm. The researchers speculate that alcohol intoxication results in a decreased aversion to harming others, so it is easier to push the one person onto the trolley track, which will result in that persons death (although at the same time saving 5 other people). Another hypothesis is that social disinhibition (created by alcohol) allows one to more easily cause harm to one person, while saving 5 other people. The take-home message of this study is not clear, but makes me wonder if conforming to social peer pressure is not always the most moral choice, and that perhaps social disinhibition is at times highly moral. For more on this, see: https://goo.gl/Lyuq5y Cognition. 2015 Jan;134:121-7    (retrieved Oct, 2016). There are currently 1090 pearls in the database. While every attempt has been made to ensure accuracy, mistakes can and do occur. Use databank at your own risk. All pearls © 2024 by the Internet Medical Association. Click Here to view more medical pearls.