A Question of Ethics

Suppose you are in a railway station, at a rail switch. A speeding train is coming. If you do not pull the switch, the train goes down tunnel A, where there are 5 people on the tracks who will be killed. If you pull the switch, it will veer to tunnel B, where there is one person on the tracks who will be killed. Quick: what do you do?

Now suppose you are on a bridge. Below you, there is a bus on an unavoidable course for five people below. They have no hope of evading the bus. However, there is a very large man next to you. If you push him off the bridge, he will fall into the path of the bus. He will certainly die, but the five people below will be spared. Do you push him?

Curiously, when faced with this question, I pulled the switch, but did not push the man. More curiously, many people respond the same way. For a deeper look into this, check out this article.