ArticlePloS one2021
Trolley dilemma in the sky: Context matters when civilians and cadets make remotely piloted aircraft decisions.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cross-cultural differences in resolving sacrificial dilemmas: choices made and how they relate to judgments of their social acceptability.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Being blind (or not) to scenarios used in sacrificial dilemmas: the influence of factual and contextual information on moral responses.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Contextualizing sacrificial dilemmas within Covid-19 for the study of moral judgment.PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Crews operating remotely piloted aircrafts (RPAs) in military operations may be among the few that truly experience tragic dilemmas similar to the famous Trolley Problem. In order to analyze decision-making and emotional conflict of RPA operators within Trolley-Problem-like dilemma situations, we created an RPA simulation that varied mission contexts (firefighter, military and surveillance as a control condition) and the social "value" of a potential victim. We found that participants (Air Force cadets and civilian students) were less likely to make the common utilitarian choice (sacrificing one to save five), when the value of the one increased, especially in the military context. However, in the firefighter context, this decision pattern was much less pronounced. The results demonstrate behavioral and justification differences when people are more invested in a particular context despite ostensibly similar dilemmas.
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