Hypothetical scenario!

**The Colonel** · 12-28-11, 01:05 PM

Imagine the scene. you are walking down a street. infront of you you see a car on fire. fire and gasoline are all the place. you know the car will explode in the next 10 seconds. you pear inside the car and there are 2 people stranded. one of the people is a white man and the other is a black man.
you have to make a decision who to say. would you save the white man or the black man.

answer the question honestly and also state what race you when you answer it. it wouldnt suprise me if most people were biased to there own race?

**Corwin111** · 12-28-11, 05:20 PM

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Imagine the scene. you are walking down a street. infront of you you see a car on fire. fire and gasoline are all the place. you know the car will explode in the next 10 seconds. you pear inside the car and there are 2 people stranded. one of the people is a white man and the other is a black man.
you have to make a decision who to say. would you save the white man or the black man.

answer the question honestly and also state what race you when you answer it. it wouldnt suprise me if most people were biased to there own race?

I see what you're doing there.

Despite what the movies tell you, actually most of humanity won't risk their lives to save strangers like that. Not when the threat is imminent as you describe. And as for those very few who actually WOULD throw themselves at an exploding car to save people they don't know, they are not doing this stuff out of pure altruism, but because they have something to prove... be it to themselves or to someone else. Their mindset is such that they would probably try to save both and die in the process. On the off chance that this doesn't happen the first person saved will be the one who happens to be closest or most easily accessible to the rescuer. Racial profiling is not instinctive and as such does not play a role in split-second decisions like this one.

**The Colonel** · 12-28-11, 05:32 PM

i think you have a very naive view of the world. i think 90% of people would choose the person of their own race.

what race r u corwin?

**Corwin111** · 12-28-11, 05:46 PM

Judging from your attitude I'd say I have a much broader view.

If you step away from the petty bickerings of bigots and make the effort to travel some and read some... you will quickly realize that black against white has never been an issue on ANY level that counts. The real battle is smart against stupid. And stupid is winning!

And I am of the human race... sometimes to my great dissatisfaction.

**NeoPhoenix** · 12-28-11, 08:04 PM

We can sit here and wax philosophical in the relative calm of our households trying to choose who we'd actually save. But that would be a helluva different thing than actually being in an adrenaline fueled situation such as the one you're describing. I'm pretty much with Corwin on this. If I HAD to save one, it'd be the one who is closest that I had the best chance of saving. Chances are though, with an imminent explosion, I would have saved neither of them because we'd probably all three be dead had I tried. Give a little bit more room to play with and I'd definitely try to save one of them. Like I said though, whoever's closest gets saved. I give not two shits about what race they happen to be.

**Split Personality** · 01-11-12, 12:46 AM

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Imagine the scene. you are walking down a street. infront of you you see a car on fire. fire and gasoline are all the place. you know the car will explode in the next 10 seconds. you pear inside the car and there are 2 people stranded. one of the people is a white man and the other is a black man.
you have to make a decision who to say. would you save the white man or the black man.

answer the question honestly and also state what race you when you answer it. it wouldnt suprise me if most people were biased to there own race?

No offense but this is quite a stupid scenario, 10 seconds is hardly enough time to save anyone and instead of 2 people dead it be 3. The logical answer is that you would save whoever is closest and easier to get out, I think someone already said this. Of course if you are going in it with a mindset of being a racist then the logical answer would be that you would save the person who you are not racist towards. To be honest, you may not even have time to decide who you are going to save and instead of contemplating on what color person you should save you will most likely just act with no prejudice and save a human life and not a color or race.

**vDubbin** · 01-11-12, 02:54 PM

I think it really is just a quick reaction, I would have no time to figure out white or black, I would not be a racist I would merely look at the situation and think as fast as I could. I would not be able to live with myself by saving only one, or saving one because the other was black or white. I can say thinking it through I would save the person with the most look on their fast the most help me look, The person closest to me I think would be the one, but if one was knocked out I would go for the other because it'd be easier to save someone who can help also.

**d.tea** · 01-17-12, 05:29 AM

Originally Posted by Split Personality

Of course if you are going in it with a mindset of being a racist then the logical answer would be that you would save the person who you are not racist towards

Love this bit.

I agree, with any sort of 'red-zone' time limit in effect, i'd say most would opt to save none, and those opting to save anyone would save whomever they could, not who they fancy more.

I think you could put some difficulty into the question if you assume that 1 person is going to be rescued and you make it a male of the questionee's race and a female of another race.

**MakeTeaNotWar** · 02-08-12, 12:55 PM

If I had the courage to do anything, I'd grab the nearest person. Doesn't matter to be about their race, it's just I'd have a better chance to get the person and myself out alive