Two ecological and social versions of the Trolley-like Problem (a direct-impact [DI] and a no-direct-impact [NDI] scenario) were created to investigate moral decision-making and determine whether age, gender, and empathy significantly predicted people’s choices. Two hundred and fifty-five participants were recruited in this study. We found that men and women made more Utilitarian Choices (UC) in the NDI scenario. In this scenario, the attribution of penalties was low (6%). In the DI scenario, we found that the UC rate was significantly reduced compared to the NDI scenario, and, surprisingly, women made more UC than men. We found that UC decreased as a function of men’s affective empathy in the NDI scenario. In the DI one, lower affective empathy levels predicted UC differently for men and women. Lastly, the attribution of penalties tripled. In conclusion, this study highlighted the role played by scenarios, gender, and empathy in predicting UC in Trolley-like Problems.

创建了两种类似手推车问题的生态和社会版本（直接影响[DI]和非直接影响[NDI]方案），以调查道德决策并确定年龄，性别和同理心是否显着预测了人们的选择。该研究招募了255名参与者。我们发现男人和女人的功利性更高NDI方案中的选择（UC）。在这种情况下，处罚的归因很低（6％）。在DI方案中，我们发现与NDI方案相比，UC率显着降低，而且令人惊讶的是，女性比男性更容易获得UC。我们发现，在NDI情境中，UC的下降是男性情感移情的函数。在DI中，较低的情感移情水平对男性和女性的UC预测不同。最后，罚款的归属增加了两倍。总之，这项研究强调了情景，性别和同情心在预测类车问题中的UC中所起的作用。