Your sibling is struggling financially due to a gambling addiction. They’ve recently lost a good deal of money, but need to pay their mortgage by the end of this week to house their family of four, or face foreclosure. They owe $5000 for a monthly payment. \n\nYou, on the other hand, have just won a lottery worth $5000, and had been planning to donate it to a charity that provides relief funds to over 200 homeless individuals in Boston. You have been wanting to donate money to this cause since you last volunteered with them. Suddenly, you receive a text from your sibling informing you of their predicament, and asking for cash. \n\nWhat do you do?\n\n[[a) Donate money to the charity to ensure that the 200 homeless people get necessary assistance. If you help your sibling, how will they ever hit rock bottom, and beat their addiction? |The Devastating Truth][$pts_deon +=1; $pts_util += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n\n[[b) Give the money to your sibling. You can't imagine leaving them and their family homeless. Everyone deserves a little good faith, no matter their mistakes. |The Devastating Truth][$pts_care += 1]]\n
Six Degrees of Valuation
It is the last month of senior year. You have already gotten into your dream college through early decision. Your best friend, however, will be taking a gap year to work in order to pay for college. Since senior year is ending, the senior class is going on a school trip. You are rooming with your best friend and two other friends who you get along with. Since it is a school trip, there is no smoking or drinking allowed. \n\nOn the last night of the trip, one of your roommates surprises everyone with a bottle of wine. Everyone shares the bottle, except your best friend who politely declines. As the night progresses, you decide to dance, and play music loudly.\n\nYou excuse yourself for a bathroom break as your friends continue to have fun. However, just as you close the bathroom door behind you, you hear someone burst inside room and demand to know what's going on. You recognize their voice as your teacher's. \n\nShe has walked in on your 3 friends sitting around a table with 3 glasses, and promises to suspend anyone who'd been drinking. \n\nYour best friend tells the teacher that she hadn't been drinking, and you decide to come out from the bathroom. The teacher turns angrily to ask if the third glass is yours. \n\nWhat do you do? \n\n[[a) Tell the teacher the truth. You can't let your friend take the fall for your decisions. |Drunken Betrayal][$pts_virt += 1]]\n\n[[b) Lie, saying you're innocent, and they must have opened the bottle while you were in the bathroom. You've worked too hard to lose your college admission. |Drunken Betrayal][$pts_util += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n\n
Times have been incredibly difficult, and you’ve turned to dealing drugs to regular customers to make a living. After months of encroaching on the territory of a notorious cartel leader to stay afloat, you’re approached one night by two figures in ski masks who tell you that they represent the cartel leader you’ve angered. After mugging you, they inform you that their boss expects you to pay $10,000 in “damages”, and that you have 24 hours to collect the cash before you’re killed as an example to other dealers. \n\nAfter exhausting all your other options for gathering the money, you contact some clients you know are in a gang to get advice, and maybe some monetary aid. This gang has been terrorizing the neighborhood for some time, so you expect that they know a thing or two about ransom deals. While they refuse to embroil themselves in a gang war, they inform you of an internal plot to remove the current gang boss, and offer you $1000 for each target you kill. They need someone from the outside to complete the covert plan.\n\nWhat do you do?\n\n[[a) Accept death. You don’t believe in murder, and don’t want to ignite further violent conflict in a troubled area. The plan could only lead to further bloodshed in the community. |Conclusion][$pts_virt += 1]]\n\n[[b) Execute the kills to save your life. These are dangerous people after all, and who knows how many lives you'll be saving in the future? |Conclusion][$pts_util += 1; $pts_deon += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n
For a few months you’ve noticed strange behavior from your parent. They’ve been more withdrawn from the family, and their morphing personality has become almost unrecognizable. You’ve made several attempts to reach out to them and understand what has happened, but they spurn all your concerns, and make themselves unavailable with strange new acquaintances.\n\nOne afternoon you see that they receive a suspicious text message, and immediately take it upon yourself to get to the bottom of what exactly has changed your loved one. Searching through their files and their belongings, you make the shocking and almost unfathomable discovery: your parent has been planning to bomb a train station tomorrow at 10am- the peak hour for travellers. Aware of the hassle of your daily commute, you know that around 5000 people make their way through that station during rush hour. The evidence you find suggests advanced planning. \n\nAs you struggle to comprehend what you’ve found, you hear footsteps behind you, and see that one of your parent’s dubious acquaintances has discovered you. After several terrifying minutes of threats and bargaining, they inform you that they have decided to keep you alive so your parent can complete the plan with a clear head, but that if you inform the authorities, they’ll be able to kill you within seconds through secret means. By the looks of their planning, you have no reason to doubt them. \n\nWhat do you do? \n\n[[a) Contact the authorities at your next opportunity. You'll sacrifice your life, and even the life or freedom of your parent, to save those 5000 innocent commuters. |Life Overdose][$pts_deon += 1; $pts_util += 1]]\n\n[[b) Keep silent out of fear. You refuse to die for 5000 people you don't know. Besides, if you keep your parent safe from the law, you can help them come back from this dark state of mind. |Life Overdose][$pts_care += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n
/* Your story will use the CSS in this passage to style the page.\nGive this passage more tags, and it will only affect passages with those tags.\nExample selectors: */\n\nbody {\n\t/* This affects the entire page */\n\t\n\t\n}\n.passage {\n\t/* This only affects passages */\n\tfont-size: 16px;\n\t\n}\n.passage a {\n\t/* This affects passage links */\n\t\n\t\n}\n.passage a:hover {\n\t/* This affects links while the cursor is over them */\n\t\n\t\n}\n#storyTitle {\n\tfont-size: 24px;\n}\n\n#storyAuthor {\n\tfont-size: 14px\n}
This game will test to what extent you consider your happiness over the happiness of others. Through different scenarios, we will challenge your preconceptions about human equality, valuation, and happiness. \nWhen it's you versus the world, who do you choose?\n\n<<set $pts_deon = 0; $pts_util = 0; $pts_virt = 0; $pts_care = 0; $pts_self = 0>>\n\n[[Let's begin! |Piece of Cake]]
jquery:off\nhash:off\nbookmark:on\nmodernizr:off\nundo:on\nobfuscate:off\nexitprompt:off\nblankcss:off\n
You’re at an academic event and there is a large, tantalizing cake being served. You discover by chance that it’s your favorite type of cake, made specially from the most exclusive bakery in North End. You’ve only heard rumors about it’s unfathomable deliciousness, and have been dying to try it for yourself. You finally taste the exquisite delicacy you’ve been yearning for for months, and hop back on line to help yourself to another slice. As the line shortens, you set your eyes on what will be the final slice of that heavenly dessert. \n\nYou feel a tap on your shoulder, and turn to see your favorite professor, who proceeds to ask if it looks like there will be enough cake for them at the front of the line. They’ve also been interested in trying this famed confection. However, you know from previous conversations that they have a very different taste in desserts, and you’ve had a very trying week.\n\nWhat do you do?\n\n[[a) Tell the professor that it looks like they just missed the last piece, so you can savor the last piece. |Gross Person][$pts_util += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n\n[[b) Admit that you’d already tried a piece, and allow him to take your place in line. |Gross Person][$pts_deon += 1]]
A truly revolting smell wafts in the air, and you pinpoint it as coming from a nearby person that you find annoying. Irregardless of their vile odor, they walk up to you and ask you if you know the location of a different friend. \n\nYou already know that if you can’t direct this person elsewhere, they will take it as a cue to start a painfully trivial conversation for the next three hours, following you wherever you should try to escape. You’re not sure if your nostrils or your mind can take it. \n\nYou know where your friend is, but you also know that your friend feels the same way about this person, and would be greatly inconvenienced by their presence.\n\nWhat do you do?\n\n[[a) Immediately tell them where to find your friend. They're someone else's problem now, and why should you lie? |Honor Code Violation][$pts_virt += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n\n[[b) Save your friend the trouble of dealing with this person. After all, you can handle a little social interaction, even with someone you're not fond of. |Honor Code Violation][$pts_care += 1]]\n
The Morality Police
At a party, you drink a bit too much and find yourself making advances toward your closest friend’s significant other. While you’ve been able to suppress your romantic interest in them before, you both get along tremendously, and they confess their mutual attraction. \n\nAfter a night of flirting and sexual tension, you wake up the next morning shocked with them in your bed, just as surprised as you are. You’re both overcome with guilt, but they’re too afraid to tell their partner. You gather the resolve to tell your friend yourself, and call her to arrange a time to meet. \n\nShe picks up the phone hysterical, only to inform you that her father passed away that morning from a heart attack. \n\nYou can:\n\n[[a) Console your best friend and decide to never tell them about this encounter, leaving your guilt to fester. Why kick her while she's down? |The Rich Homeless]]\n\n[[b) Tell her now while you still have the courage. She deserves to know, and who are you to safeguard her from the truth? You can't support her while lying to her face. |The Rich Homeless][$pts_deon += 1; $pts_virt += 1; $pts_self += 1]]\n
<<if $pts_self >= 4>>In the majority of the cases, you chose answers that put yourself first.\n<<else>>In the majority of the cases, you chose answers that put others first.<<endif>>\n<<if ($pts_care >= $pts_deon) and ($pts_care >= $pts_util) and ($pts_care >= $pts_virt) >>You make your decisions based on the Ethics of Care. The Ethics of Care is a moral philosophy in which decisions are based on caring intentions and relationships. We have a duty to those close to us, and we should genuinely care for their well-being, and value it above that of others.<<endif>>\n<<if ($pts_deon >= $pts_care) and ($pts_deon >= $pts_util) and ($pts_deon >= $pts_virt) >>You make your decisions based on deontology. Deontology is a moral philosophy in which decisions are based solely on intentions, not consequences.If you act based on good will, what happens is not under your control.<<endif>>\n<<if ($pts_util >= $pts_care) and ($pts_util >= $pts_deon) and ($pts_util >= $pts_virt) >>You make your decisions based on Utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy in which decisions are based solely on the end result. Where you can maximize happiness, who cares how you do it?<<endif>>\n<<if ($pts_virt >= $pts_care) and ($pts_virt >= $pts_util) and ($pts_virt >= $pts_util) >>You make your decisions based on Virtue Ethics. Virtue Ethics is a moral philosophy in which decisions are based on the virtues you possess. It's not what you do, but what's in your heart as you do it. Act as who you want to be.<<endif>>\n\nNow that you know this, how will you employ this moral theory across your whole life? Who will you save? What will you sacrifice?\n\nThanks for Playing!\n\nSincerely,\nThe Morality Police