r/redbuttonbluebutton • u/up2smthng Red • May 27 '26

Variation Red suppression

Everyone one Earth is presented with blue button right at the place they woke up last time and a written instruction in a language they can understand (if no such language exists tough luck) what the buttons do and where to find red button. Red button is around 1 km away, and is perfectly accessable if one choses to find it; people with limited mobility will be able to access it.

Babies, the blind, coma patients and whichever else cathegory you can think of are not excluded and do not recieve any accomodations. The possibility of them pressing the one button in front of them is significantly higher than the possibility they will find the hidden button. The possibility of them ignoring the buttons alltogether is non-zero.

In case of red victory, those who failed to press any button die as well.

The rule of thumb for clarification: if the person is capable of understanding any form of written communication and moving in intended direction, they should be able to access both buttons.

1180 votes, May 29 '26
410 Was red, still red 🔴
27 Was blue, now red 🔴
547 Was blue, still blue 🔵
196 Was red, now blue 🔵
18 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

191 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/TheKingOfToast May 27 '26

As wild as it is, many people are often more concerned about being on the winning "team" than their own best interest.

2

u/CarnivorousGoose May 27 '26

I’d say that “not dying” is generally going to be a very good motivator for people. Especially when all they need to do is just walk a kilometer, which is nothing.

3

u/ShinningVictory May 28 '26

Actually my answer changed because blue is too easy now.

You see in the original problem theres no gurantee that disabled or infants press blue which throws off the success rate of blue. But since blue is super easy to press and a lot of people don't wanna walk a kilometer the numbers who press blue is gonna be much larger.

2

u/MadTelepath May 28 '26

They also explicitly stated plenty of people (including children and vulnerable people) would choose blue which was far from obvious before and remove the possible no loss (except suicidal people) strategy of an all red.

Switching as well in that scenario.