Individual vs.group decision making to withdraw from a business

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The trolley problem describes a kind of moral dilemma. Participants are asked if it is morally permissible to divert the trolley away from five people but towards one person. A utilitarian view asserts that it is obligatory to divert the trolley, but some participants cannot accept it on a gut level. It is not clear yet what kinds of factors are related with the gut feeling. Participants' attitudes toward the trolley problem have little variation across differences in gender, age, educational level, ethnicity, religion or national affiliation (Hauser et al., 2007). Neuroscience research demonstrates that focal bilateral damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) increases utilitarian moral judgments (Koenigs et al., 2007). This study investigated the relationship between participants' attitudes toward the problem and their personality. It is suggested that the levels of locus of control, self-enclosure/human distrust, and cognitive reflection have weak positive correlations with the level of utilitarianism.