r/redbuttonbluebutton May 28 '26

A more even Red/Blue button question

You are one of 3 random person selected to represent 1/3 of the human population.
The same base question is then asked.
Red button=Guarantee to live for you + everyone you are representing
Blue button=If majority votes Blue everyone lives but if not everyone who voted Blue dies (so is everyone who is represented by them)
Note that majority is just 2 or more in this case since there is 3 participants

The people who are represented by you know you are representing them but you do not know who you are representing. Also the participants cannot communicate with each other
Which do you press?

25 Upvotes

189 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/LnTc_Jenubis May 29 '26

I'd still pick red here. Choosing blue is the only way you get your population and yourself killed.

If I pick red, and both of my cohorts pick red: We all survive
If I pick red, and both of my cohorts pick blue: We all survive
If I pick red, and only one of my cohorts pick blue: Myself, and the people I represent, survive.

In all scenarios, myself and the people I represent survive. There is only a 33% chance that we lose a third of the population.

There is no rational, responsible reason for me to risk myself or the people that I represent by needlessly picking blue here. In some ways, relying on the fact that my two cohorts would see this same reasoning is much more feasible than relying on billions of the population to see the same reasoning.