The Blue or Red Button Dilemma and the Hantavirus Cruise Ship

Recently a new hypothetical moral dilemma made the rounds online, the red button vs blue button dilemma. The dilemma posits that everyone in the world is privately given a choice between a red button and blue button. They are told that if more than 50% press the blue button, everyone lives, but if less than 50% press the blue button, only those who press the red will be left alive. Shortly after this moral dilemma went viral, an outbreak of a deadly virus was discovered on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The popular response to this outbreak seemed to bleed into the discourse around the moral dilemma.

A few days ago, I saw an Instagram reel where the creator was attempting to point out hypocrisy in the response to both issues. While the majority on social media argued in favor of pushing the blue button, many also said that they believe that the ship having the outbreak of Hantavirus should not be allowed to port, leaving the occupants stranded at sea. While the creator of the reel attempted to say that to hold these two opinions is hypocritical, it is actually entirely morally consistent.

At the surface level, to push the blue button is to signal that you believe that one should sacrifice for the greater good, and to press the red is to signal that you wish to preserve your life at any cost. But looking closer, you understand that what is really stated by pushing the blue button is the belief that the majority would be willing to risk themselves for the greater good, and what is really stated by pushing the red button is a distrust in the majority, not that you wish to preserve your life at any cost, but the expectation that the majority will choose to preserve their lives at any cost.

And so, when it is argued that the ship should not be allowed to port and the passengers must be left at sea, it is fundamentally the same moral framework presented by the blue button, that those who hold this view expect others to be willing to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the majority. It may be pointed out that to press the blue button is to risk one’s own life, but importantly it is predicated on the expectation of the majority to take the same risk. That there are those who push the red button inverts the moral expectations of those who push the blue button, causing them to direct ire towards those who would press the red button. Similarly, there is anger that many passengers of the cruise ship demand repatriation to their homes.

If anything, those who push the red button would have more sympathy for the passengers of the cruise ship, as they, putting themselves in the shoes of the passengers, would advocate for their survival in the face of the majority. Because that is exactly what pushing the red button entails, in that to push the red button is to defend yourself from the majority, to refuse to be subject to the whims of the masses. To push the blue button, on the other hand, is to defend the majority from the individual. The blue demands their martyrdom, the red understands their need to survive.

One who never opens the door for others likely does not expect the door to be opened for him, yet one who does may expect that others would for him.