02x01 - The Greater Good

[bunniefuu]

[sneezes] Excuse me.

You know, if I had been driving,

that would've been pretty dangerous.

Every time you sneeze,

your eyes close for about one second,

which means if you sneeze
while driving at, say,

70 miles per hour times 5,280
divided by 60 divided by 60,

you will travel about 103
feet with your eyes closed.

But don't worry.

This is a self-driving car.

It uses sensors and
software to drive itself

to keep me and other people safe.

I hope.

[tires screech]

Impressive. But let me ask you a question.

What if an autonomous vehicle
had to make a choice

between hitting two people
right in front of it

or swerving to avoid them

and hit one person on a sidewalk?

What should it be programmed to do?

[tires screech, car crashes]

What would you do?

Now polls and surveys
have been put together

asking people what they
think they would do,

but no researchers have ever put people

in that actual traumatic experience.

Would we learn more about
human nature if we did that?

Would it even be ethical to put
people in that sort of position?

I'm about to find out.

[theme music playing]

In 1967, British philosopher Philippa Foot

created a precursor to our
self-driving car conundrum.

The famous scenario she came up with

is known as "the trolley problem."

Imagine there's a runaway train
hurtling down a train track.

Directly ahead of the train,

there are five people on the track.

Now, imagine that you are too far away

to help those five people,
but right next to you,

there's a lever that can divert
the train onto another track.

If you divert the train, the
five people will be saved.

But here's the catch.

There's another person on the second track.

Now you're faced with a dilemma.

You can either do nothing

and the train will k*ll five people,

or you can pull the lever
and save their lives,

but be directly responsible
for one person's death.

What would you do?

When surveyed, most people say
that they'd pull the lever

and sacrifice one person to save five.

It's for the greater good.

But how we say we'd act may not match

how we'd actually act if the
scenario really happened

with real emotions and real lives at stake.

Any difference between the
two would reveal who we are

compared to who we want
to be, but a comparison

could only be made by doing what
has never been done before:

making the trolley problem real.

[Michael] Suppose we
conducted an experiment

in a realistic railroad switching station

with test subjects watching
trains on monitors.

The trains and the people on the tracks

would be staged and prerecorded,

but the subjects would
think it was all real.

They would believe that
they could control a lever

that switches the tracks,

and they'd have the option
to divert the train or not.

They'd be totally convinced
that they have to choose

between five lives or one.

But wait, there's a greater-good dilemma

about doing an experiment
on the greater good.

By forcing people to truly believe

they might k*ll someone, are we risking

serious psychological damage to them?

Yes, it might be beneficial to
all of us to see what happens,

but would those benefits be worth
potential trauma to a few?

To actually conduct a
real-life trolley problem,

I needed to make sure it would be ethical.

So I sat down with
behavioral neuroscientist

Professor Aaron Blaisdell.

What you know about the trolley problem

and what previous studies have found?

Most people say they would pull the switch.

Sure, it's one life versus five.
The math works out.

But what I want to know is that
if we actually put them in front

of a switch, watching a train
barreling towards people,

would they actually pull it in that moment?

I bet a lot of them would
freeze in that moment.

When you're afraid,

I think that shuts down a lot of action.

- I'd like to find out.
- Okay.

What potential harms could come
to someone in that position?

Most people would probably be fine,

but there is a small potential for harm

in the sense of somebody being guilt-ridden

over their decision,
obsessive thoughts about,

"I'm the person who would push that button

and cause the train to
go and k*ll somebody."

Or they might think, "I'm
the person who would freeze

and I wouldn't be able to
help those five people,"

and that could be traumatic.

- Have we ever tested the trolley problem

on human subjects for real?

- To my knowledge, we have not.

- Would you want to see the trolley problem

enacted in real life?

You know, I would.

That would be very informative
about how people really react.

- If I were tell you we're going to run this...
- Okay.

- Would you feel comfortable

with that responsibility on your shoulders?

No. I couldn't do it.

For me to be involved in that,

it would have to be on the
shoulders of many people,

including an ethics board.

I couldn't just go through with that.

[Michael] Dr. Blaisdell's reliance

on an ethics board made sense.

Most universities have ethics review boards

to answer one crucial question:

When is it okay to risk psychological harm

in the name of science?

[Narrator] It is May 1962.

An experiment is being
conducted at Yale University.

[Michael] Ethics review boards
were developed as a result

of some controversial
psychological experiments

in the middle of the last century.

One theory is that people
learn things correctly

whenever they get punished
for making a mistake.

[buzzer] -Incorrect.

You'll now get a shock of 105 volts.

[man grunts]

[Michael] Dr. Stanley Milgram

tested how far subjects would go

in obeying authority, even if they believed

they were physically hurting someone.

330 volts.

[man screams]

No one was being electrocuted,
and the screams

of the shock victim were
fake, but the trauma

that the participants
suffered was very real.

[man] You have no right to hold me here!
Let me out!

This sparked controversy

within the scientific community.

Many questioned Milgram's methodology,

but unlike a research school,
Mind Field doesn't answer

to a university's ethics committee.

That said, I wanted to get the thoughts

of an institutional review board,

so I tracked one down and proposed my idea

for doing the trolley problem in real life.

Do you think I could reach
a point where you would

feel comfortable approving this study?

I hate to be the bearer
of bad tidings, Michael.

Probably not.

I'm not ready to say no quite yet.

I would love to see your study pass,

and I actually think the
ways to make it pass

is we should probably be
screening out for people

who might have posttraumatic
stress disorder,

you know, any kind of,
like, clinical problem

that could make them more vulnerable

to a type of event like this
with the addition of something

like a trauma counselor on-site.

I actually think that under
those circumstances,

- it might pass.
- Can you present

a compelling case as to the
social good of this study?

- I agree.
- If you could find a way

to say, "Look, this is why it's important.

It's not just basic theoretical research.

This has direct implications
for mass transit,

direct implications for self-driving cars.

It's a risk-benefit,

but the benefits are
potentially tremendous."

[Michael] Right, and so my hope is that
the good this experiment does

is in revealing the
difference between instinct

and philosophical reflection,

and I think that there could
be an enormous benefit

in learning the difference
so that we can train people

to act in the way that
they wish they would.

- [David] Yeah.
- [Natasha] That's interesting.

- That's a compelling argument.
- [Natasha] Yeah.

I came into this meeting
expecting a lot of resistance,

but, instead, I'm actually
leaving invigorated,

like, excited to take their concerns,

implement them into the study,

and make it not just more acceptable,

which I thought was the purpose here,

but to actually make it more beneficial,

more fascinating, and penetrate deeper

and have more applications in society.

So I decided we were ready to move forward,

to turn one of the most notorious

hypothetical ethical
dilemmas into a reality.

[train horn blowing]

We traveled to an abandoned railroad line

and hired a freight train.

Our subjects needed to be
shown how switch points work.

So the "Mind Field" production team

sh*t a video of a train
going down two tracks.

Then we dressed six actors
like railroad workers.

Since we didn't want them to
be at actual risks of harm,

we took steps to make sure they were safe.

You're all going to be
workers on the track.

We will not have the train moving

while you are on the tracks.

[Michael] We filmed our
actors on the tracks,

wearing ear protection
and looking distracted

to explain why they couldn't hear

a train coming toward them.

Then in editing, we employed visual effects

to create the illusion of
the train approaching.

We then combined the sh*ts together.

During the experiment,
we would play the video

for our subjects, who would believe

the action was happening live

and transmitted from remote cameras.

Our next step was to find an expert

who would be willing to guide
me through the process

of selecting our subjects,

in order to minimize psychological harm.

So what should I be worried about?

The worst would probably be
posttraumatic stress disorder,

and that's when they're going to
be re-experiencing the trauma.

They'll keep thinking
about it over and over,

and so to limit risk, you'd
want to screen out people

prone to a traumatic reaction,

and then afterwards, do the debrief.

That's the key to limit
harm from happening.

How are they feeling at this moment?

What's going on with them?

You can start to ease them into the reality

of what is instead of
what they thought it was.

Would you be willing to help
us conduct this experiment?

Oh, uh...

yes, I mean, I think I would.

I think this is a really fascinating

and valuable experiment,
because people can have

very uncomfortable lessons that
they then start to learn from.

If I can make sure that we get
people who may be appropriate

to do such a thing, I would be honored.

[woman] I'm calling regarding
a study we're doing

for high-speed railway.

I wanted to know if you might be interested

in participating next week.

[Michael] To disguise the true
nature of our experiment,

we placed an online ad recruiting people

for a fake focus group to offer feedback

on California's new high-speed rail.

Today I'm just going to ask you
to fill out a couple forms

to make sure that there's a
range of personality types

in our group and for TSA security purposes.

[Michael] These psychological surveys,

used frequently by employers,

look to uncover signs
of depression, anxiety,

and other conditions
that might make someone

unsuitable to participate
in this experiment.

Thank you very much. Have a great day.

Thank you.

Back in Dr. Cason's office,

we reviewed the potential
subjects' responses.

This particular person, I
was concerned about this.

Some high suicidal
thinking, high acting out.

Those kinds of factors might
not be good in an experiment

where you want to try to prevent

- some of the trauma from happening.
- Right.

These people, though,

and there's a large group of them,

they are more resilient.

So I would be more comfortable
with these people,

because their ability to bounce back

in difficult situations might make them

less susceptible to a trauma.

[Michael] Finally, after
consulting two psychologists

and a university ethics board,

it was time to put our plan into action.

[Michael] This is where we're
going to physically create

the trolley problem in real life,

not with a trolley, but with a train.

Our subjects will sign in at this booth

for our phony focus test,

which will never actually take place.

It's going to be a hot day for them.

So we'll offer them, while they wait

for the actual test to begin,
the chance to sit inside

this nice air-conditioned
remote switching station.

Inside, they'll meet a kindly
train-switch operator,

supposedly an employee

of the California Railroad Authority.

The California Railroad Authority is real.

Real fake.

We invented this nonexistent
government organization

to convince our subjects that
everything here is real,

including these monitors
showing supposedly live sh*ts

of actual trains from different tracks

all around the California area.

[horn blows]

While the participant is
waiting inside this room,

they'll learn how the
operator switches the tracks

using a lever to remotely switch a train

from one track to another.

They'll see it happen.

We're actually controlling the video

on these screens from a
different hidden control room.

At a given time, the switch operator

will leave the subject alone
in the switching station.

And at that point, a crisis will occur.

[brakes hiss] -[horn blows]

A train will be barreling down the tracks,

and workers will have made
their way out to both tracks,

five on one, one worker on
his phone on the other.

No one is around for them to alert

who has any kind of control or authority.

Switching the train is
up to the subject alone.

They'll feel like what they do
has real-world consequences.

[train horn blows] -Will
five people die...

or will one?

[horn blows]

Our first participant is almost here,

so it's time for me to get ready.

Dr. Cason, how are you feeling?

- Good.
- My hypothesis

is that we're going see people immediately,

when they hear that first warning,

leave the station and not
want to get back inside.

The other option would be, of
course, the freeze action,

where they don't do anything,

'cause they don't know what to do.

In that case, we want to
know their thought process.

It'll be interesting to see.
This has never been done before.

All right, well, here we go.

[warning bells clanging]

[Michael] Our first subject is Elsa.

[woman] Do you wanna stand
over here in the shade?

Hi, I'm Elsa, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, Elsa.

[Michael] Everyone she meets is an actor,

and all of our cameras are hidden

so she has no idea that
she's being watched.

Oh, yeah, thank you so much,

and then my phone if I can.

Thank you.

[Michael] Our subjects were
told that the technology

they're about to see is proprietary.

This gave us an excuse
to collect their phones

so they couldn't call for help
during the imminent crisis.

- Thank you so much for coming out today.
- Thank you.

What we're doing here is, the
California Railroad Authority,

they're developing high-speed trains.

And so we want the public
to come in and give us

some feedback on how comfortable
they are, the decor, you know.

- Oh, wow.
- All that kind of stuff.

- [cell phone chirps]
- Um, oh, sh**t.

They're running a little
behind from the last one.

- That's okay.
- So it's just gonna be, like, another 15, maybe 20 minutes.

Yeah, that's fine, yeah. No problem.

Um... you know what? I've got an idea.

Okay.

Michael: Now Elsa believes

she has to wait for 20 minutes.

[knock on door] -Yeah?

Our actress pretends to ask permission

for her to wait inside
the switching station.

So, actually, this isn't part of it.

This is a remote train-switching station,

but since it's gonna be a little bit,

and it's nice and cool and
air-conditioned in there,

I just talked to Eddie, and he said

it would be totally great
for you to come in...

- Oh, yeah, okay.
- And just check it out...

- Okay, cool.
- And see what they do in there.

Eddie, this is Elsa.

- How are you, Elsa?
- I'm good, how are you?

Good, come on in, have a seat.

So what brings you out this way?

Um, the focus group. [laughs]

Focus group.

Yes, the high-speed railroad.
The luxury railroad.

Okay. So what we got here is
a remote switching station.

These are all live feeds.

What's happening is there's a
lot of construction going on.

We're going to have to put all
new ballast through here,

new ribbon rail right here on these.

[Michael] In case you're
wondering, we hired an actor

who actually spent 20 years
working on railroads.

Can you imagine if we had
an actor who didn't know

a lot about trains?

[Greg] He offers something
called face validity

in that you can look at him, and you think,

"Ah, this guy's real."

My job here is to take
care of all the switching

right here on these two tracks right now.

And so there needs to be
someone in here all the time.

Now, the other thing about this...

[female voice] Attention,
train approaching.

This is probably a work unit that's coming.

- Uh-huh.
- We're gonna divert it to track two.

Okay, so a train's coming.

Now's a chance for her to
learn how the switch works.

Ah, very good.

In fact, why don't you
be the one to do that?

Just go ahead and throw it yourself.

- Pull it down.
- Right now?

Yeah, go ahead. Good.

It's going much faster than you think.

All right, it's gonna make the
transition to track number two.

Well, I tell you what.
You're now a switchman.

[both laugh]

Okay, well, now that the trailing car

is clear of the switch points,

go ahead and switch it back to track one.

- Okay.
- That was kind of scary.

I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to turn it.

Well, just you wait.

The good thing is we've
got it back on line one,

and that means that the next
train that comes through

will go through on track one.

[Michael] Elsa now understands exactly

where the trains will go,

switch one to the left,
switch two to the right.

It was time to force her to
make a very difficult decision.

[cell phone rings] -Hang on.

- Oh, I gotta take this.
- Oh, yeah, sure, no problem.

Do me a favor.

- Wait right here.
- Okay.

Someone has to be here at all times.

Okay, no problem.

I'm just gonna go out
and take care of this.

- Okay, no problem. Okay.
- Be back in a sec.

[Greg] Look at her eyes

'cause she's concerned immediately,

a little worried, like, "What?"

[Michael] We gave Elsa a couple of minutes

to acclimate to her surroundings, and then,

we started the playback
of our staged footage.

[Michael] All right, here come the workers.

[female voice] Attention, object on track.

Yep, she just noticed them.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, object on track.

[Greg] She's looking in
her purse to find...

- [Michael] No phone?
- No phone.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, object on track.

[Michael] I think the warning does a lot.

If you're in that station,
you're supposed to do something.

Attention, object on track.

Okay, here comes the train.

[train horn blows]

Attention, train approaching.

Here's the "train approaching" warning.

Attention, object on track.

[Greg] I don't think at
this... oh, there she goes.

Attention, train approaching.

There's a train approaching.

[woman] What?

I wanted to let him know that
there's a train approaching.

- Oh, my God, okay.
- Can you tell him?

Yeah, I will go look for him right now.

[Michael] But the switch
operator won't be coming back.

The full weight of this
crisis is all on Elsa.

[female voice] Attention,
train approaching.

- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
- Attention, object on track.

- Attention, train approaching.
- [Greg] I can't believe this.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, train approaching.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, train approaching.

Attention, object on track.

End of test. Everyone is safe.

End of test. Everyone is safe.

- Okay.
- [Michael] We didn't want

the participants to think that
anyone actually got hurt.

So we showed them this
"everyone is safe" card

before the train would
have actually hit anyone.

- Elsa.
- I'm Michael.

Hi, -And this is Greg.

- This was all an experiment.
- Okay.

Can we come on in?

We want to ask you a few questions.

Yeah, sure. Did I do something wrong?

- Not at all.
- How are you feeling right now?

[chuckles] Um... just scared.

- Go ahead and take a seat.
- [Greg] Scared?

- Yes.
- So no one was in any danger.

This is a psychological
experiment that we're conducting

on how people behave when
decisions need to be made.

- Oh, okay.
- Walk me through how you felt.

I felt the pressure. I'm
like, "Oh, my gosh,

these people are gonna die."

I had to make a very quick
and sound decision, like,

immediately, right now, right this second.

Their lives were in my hands.

I need to change it to track two.

[Michael] What was motivating
your decision to switch?

So I can save more lives.

I didn't know if I was
making the right decision.

I mean, a life is a life, right?

[Michael] So when confronted
with two terrible choices,

at least one person was capable of taking

deliberate action to sacrifice
one in order to save five.

But we wanted to see if
Elsa's reaction was typical.

- Need my phone?
- Yes, please.

Would you be interested in
high-speed transportation?

- Oh, yeah, anything that cuts through...
- [cell phone rings]

sh**t, sorry. I just got a text.
I'm so sorry.

Why don't you have a look in there

and see the trains running?

Oh, it's so much nicer in
here than it is out there.

When I first started out, I used
to have to stand out in the sun.

- What?
- Do you know when the next train's coming?

- There's one coming right there.
- He has a great eye.

[female voice] Attention,
train approaching.

[Michael] As with Elsa, every
subject received a lesson

in how to switch the tracks.

Why don't you go ahead and switch them?

- Right here?
- Yeah.

Go ahead. How does that feel?

I was, like, exhilarated. I
was, like... I got nervous.

[cell phone rings] -One second.

Let me check this. Hang on one sec. Ah.

Someone has to be in here the whole time.

- I got it, yep, I'm here.
- Okay.

- Hello?
- [laughing]

Breaker, one-nine, roger, copy that.

He's actually tapping into the
power of being in that position.

[female voice] Attention, object on track.

[Michael] Here comes the test.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, train approaching.

[Greg] She's not moving.

- Attention, train approaching.
- Just watch his eyebrows.

[Michael] Oh, yeah.

Eyes are going back and forth.

Train approaching.

- Oh, she's worried.
- Yeah.

Train approaching.

I don't know what I would do
in this kind of scenario.

Train approaching.

This is sort of that
frozen pose that we see.

Paralysis in the face of danger
is such a common reaction.

Attention, object on track.

Attention, train approaching.

Object on track.

[Michael] Even with the train seconds away,

some are still looking for
others to take control.

I'll go try and find him. Okay.

[sings softly] -She's singing.

This is self-soothing there, yeah.

[female voice] Object on track. Attention.

- She's not moving.
- Oh, my gosh, wow.

Okay, -Is she gonna switch it?

Train approaching.
Attention, object on track.

Attention.

End of test. Everyone is safe.

- What?
- All right, let's go.

[Michael] Not one of these
participants pulled the lever.

Time to find out why.

[Michael] Hello, J.R.

Oh, my gosh! How you guys doing?

- My name's Michael.
- J.R.

Everything that just
happened was an experiment.

[laughs]

This was an experiment.

- Oh, my gosh.
- Okay.

What were you feeling when
you were watching that?

Terrified! I... I just...

I was feeling a little anxious when I saw

the train coming, like, "Oh, my God!"

- Your heart is b*ating fast?
- Yeah, a little bit, yeah.

Tell me what was going through
your mind when you heard

that first warning that a
train was approaching?

I thought about switching it,

but then actually acting on
it was a different thing.

I kind of suspended my responsibility.

Like, I didn't know what
to do, so I was just like,

"Oh, I better not touch it you
know, because I don't know

if I'll screw something up."

I would assume that there would be...

Out of those five guys,
someone would've looked back.

They were gonna get out of the way,

of the train was already planning to stop.

I think they probably built those trains

with some type of sensor
or something like that.

[Michael] "The train probably had sensors."

"The workers would've noticed."

"I didn't want to touch the equipment."

These are all forms of attribution,

when an individual assumes that others

are either responsible for taking action

or have already done so.

- Both tracks had people on them.
- Right!

And I just didn't know who
should live and who should die.

Do I switch it, do I not switch it?

I mean, either way, someone's
gonna get really badly hurt.

I didn't want that power.

It was quite... quite
the test, I would say.

[Michael] It is quite the test.

At this point, one subject

had switched the tracks,
and five others had not.

But we weren't done yet. Meet Cory.

- Here, have a seat.
- Much obliged, thank you.

This is cool.

This whole module will interconnect

with the entire nation if we wanted it to.

But right now, we're looking
at just track one on the left,

track two through there.

- Nice.
- These are many, many miles away.

Yeah, -But they're all live feeds.

Surveying the scene. Eagle's point of view.

[cell phone rings] -Yeah.
Let me see what this is.

- Okay, I'll be right back.
- Okay, got it.

[Greg] He's remaining engaged.

[Michael] Here come the workers.

Oh, no.

[female voice] Attention, object on track.

Uh, yeah.

So he realizes there's a potential problem.

I think he's gonna go out.

Attention, train approaching.

Um, there's a train coming? Um...

[Greg] Okay.

Attention, object on track.

Uh, yeah.

Attention, train approaching.

Okay, he realizes there's
no one there, it's urgent.

Okay, so this needs to go to...

Attention, object on track.

[Greg] Okay, he's rehearsing what to do.

- Attention, train approaching.
- Oh. Track two.

Do they not know?

Attention, train approaching.

I know. They should see this.

Object on track. Attention,
train approaching.

- Attention, object on track.
- [train horn blows]

- Attention, object on track.
- Oh, my God.

End of test. -Okay, good.

Everyone is safe.

- Hello?
- Hi, Cory, my name's Michael.

There was just a... almost
an accident seemingly.

- Cory, everything that just happened was an experiment.
- Okay.

- No one was in danger.
- For sure.

These were just loops
of video taken before.

This is a psychology experiment
looking at how people behave...

- Okay. Okay, yeah.
- In various circumstances.

So tell me how you were feeling.

- Mainly a bunch of terror.
- [Greg] Terror.

And responsibility, because
I was at the helm.

And just horrified about making a decision

between, like, five people compared to one.

It was very scary, to say the least.

- It was scary, right.
- Yeah. Oh, yeah.

What was going through your mind

as the train's coming down the track?

It was mainly to warn them.

There are... just to reiterate...

What's coming up? What's
coming up right now?

You don't want to have to
choose between people.

Right.

And that was really tough.

Either like six families or one family?

It was, like... up to
me, it felt like. Yeah.

It was interesting to me that
you had such presence of mind.

[Michael] Yeah, look for
help and make a decision.

The one that everyone, if
you ask them in a survey,

says that they would like
to be brave enough to make.

Yes, so that was impressive,
Cory, it really was.

Thank you.

You know, I think it would
be good to have you meet

- some of the people who participated so you can see.
- Awesome.

Yeah, let's go do that,
just follow us on out

- and meet the actors.
- Awesome.

[Michael] Cory showed us just how important

the debrief was in this situation.

Meeting the actors, which
all of our subjects did,

reinforced that this was not a reality.

So, Greg, trolley problem.

- Mm-hmm.
- I went into this thinking

we're going to tease out some
general truths about human nature.

However, what we've really seen

is that you learn a lot
about the individual.

- Right.
- Everyone had some explanation for their behavior.

- Yes.
- Each one was different.

Yes, each one person
told themselves a story

about what was happening
according to the facts

and their analysis of the surroundings

and what was going on at the moment,

but it's also based on their
own background and experience.

Totally, there were people
who were just frozen,

realizing something was wrong
and they weren't prepared.

[Greg] J.R. was a great example of that.

He evaluated everything, but
at some point just said,

"You know, I don't know what to do."

Other people were ready
to say, "You know what?

This isn't on me. It's on the technology.

I'm sure it's being taken
care of by others."

Whereas someone like Cory,

- someone like Elsa said...
- [switch clicks]

"No, I have to
take control." -[click]

They still had some of those same thoughts,

but I think what happened is they realized

that if they did not do something,

more people would be hurt.

Neither of them really
wanted to do something.

They both felt compelled to do something,

'cause they had to save lives.

So was it worth doing
the trolley experiment?

I think it was definitely worth it.

Some of these participants,
if not all of them,

learned something about human behavior.

Although it was a difficult experience,

Elsa learned what inner strength she had,

and I think we had saw
that with Cory as well.

Every single one of our
participants felt like

- they just contributed to something.
- Right.

And they feel the value
of what just happened.

- Yeah.
- It's not just us.

Wow.

We've since followed up with our subjects,

and all of them are doing well.

I'm glad we minimized risk

by prescreening vulnerable individuals,

debriefing the participants, and
providing on-site counseling

because doing so gave me confidence

that we could explore this facet
of human psychology ethically.

We learned that there's a stark difference

between what people think they would do

and what they actually do when faced

with a difficult moral dilemma.

Instead of saving five lives,

most of our participants did nothing,

but is it wrong to freeze?

Should people feel bad
for being unable to act?

Well, here's the thing.

Freezing in the face of
a thr*at is a behavior

that can be found all
over the animal kingdom,

but we are the only animals
that can study how we act,

pontificate on how we ought to act,

and program machines to do only that.

To make progress in our study of the mind,

we have to affect the mind,

and that's not something
that we should take lightly.

Understanding who we are
by taking ourselves

to the limit comes with a
risk, and as we've learned,

that risk must always be balanced

against the greater good.

And as always, thanks for watching.

This season, on Mind Field...

You're going to be a lab rat in a maze.

Nobody's ever done this before.

It's quite pioneering work, really.

As far as I'm concerned,
you're already a co-author

on our scientific paper.

- Ready?
- Ready.

I'm here on the Amazon, where I will drink

an ancients psychedelic drug... ayahuasca.

Don't worry, this is a self-driving car.

We'll connect through Bluetooth
to this living robot.

Okay, and then to the left.

- Whoa.
- Whoa-ho-ho!

I didn't realize that
you were a real person.

I'm gonna tear you apart if you
don't give us some answers.

I am going to be taking
a lie-detection test.

[buzz] -[crackling]

You know, Chinese water
t*rture isn't even Chinese.

Will five people die, or will one?

This is a big first for us.

We're actually getting to do this for real.

Welcome to Mind Field.

Thanks for watching!

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