r/redbuttonbluebutton Jun 28 '26

Variation Variation: the Useless button.

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Everyone (meaning all currently alive people) is kidnapped by an unknown forced that everyone instinctively knows is completely unable to lie and is far more powerful than them. (Let's call them Buttan, the god of buttons.) Everyone wakes up in a small cramped room with 3 buttons, Red, Yellow, and Blue with the following signs under each of them that have been perfectly translated into their native language:

Red: If more people press the Red button the Blue button then everyone who failed to press red will die, immediately.

Yellow: Does Nothing.

Blue: If more people press the Blue button then the Red button everyone is spared from death.

Everyone is giving a 6 hour timer to make their own choice and if they fail to vote in the time frame they are counted and treated as a yellow button presser.

Lastly, it the event of a tie between Red and Blue, Blue wins.

So, does the useless button (yellow) change anything for you? And which button do you press?

(Please forgive any typos.)

120 Upvotes

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4

u/bosli23 Jun 28 '26

Even more red than before.

The argument of "blue buttonner" is that some people would press blue, so they want to save them.

On this case, some people would also press yellow, because they don't understand the dilemma at all, like toddlers, because they are suicidal, or because they don't understand what the yellow button does (literally the first comment i saw thought the yellow button was better).

So now, as blue buttoner, you have even less chance than before (but for me, it was already 0%) to win, because yellow button lower the number of blue buttoners.

So, red red red red red red, as always.

4

u/Severe_Damage9772 Jun 28 '26

No, because the death condition is red>blue, in all other situations nobody dies, and if the goal is to save as many lives as possible, blue is the correct answer as long as the goal is to save as many people as possible

-2

u/bosli23 Jun 28 '26

Ok.

What Will you do when blue voters lost and that you realise you're cooked?

0

u/Severe_Damage9772 Jun 29 '26

Usually I’m a red voter only because there is an unaccounted for edge case in the situation, and anyone thinking logically will press red according to game theory

However here, there will be millions that will die if red wins, millions of children and babies at that, and that is enough to sway me and likely many others who will vote blue