Question

people were asked to imagine a runaway trolley car that was about to kill five people, unless one person jumped on the tracks of the oncoming trolley, thereby diverting the trolley to a safe path. A participant would have to choose between letting the trolley crush five people or sacrifice to save the five people.

1. write a hypothesis from which you will test the validity of your statement. (independent & independent variables).

2 review literature in referance to the theme that will assist you in determing the next step

3 choose what research method you feel will maximize the strenght of your hypothesis statement

4 illustrate how you would collect data

5 summarize your findings

Answer 1

1. Null hypothesis: The harm caused by an action has no impact on the willingness to violate moral principles.

Alternative hypothesis: The harm caused by an action has an impact on the willingness to violate moral principles.

The independent variable is the harm caused by an action and the dependent variable is the willingness to violate moral principles.

2. The current review of literature reveals that many studies have been conducted to test this moral dilemma.

3. The reserach method that should be chosen is the experimental method, wherein data collection will occur under a controlled setting.

4. The data can be collected by creating a virtual environment which simulates this real life setting. This would allow participants to visualise the situation better and thereby allow for more thoughtful response.

5. The findings of the study are expected to reveal that a majority of the participants would display a willingness to violate a moral rule by killing a single individual for the sake of minimising the overall harm.