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The trolley problem and psychopathy present a disturbing moral dilemma. A runaway trolley is heading towards five people who cannot escape. You can pull a lever to divert it onto another track, but one person will then die instead. What does the trolley problem reveal about psychopathy and impulsive manipulative behaviour?

A more extreme version asks whether you would push a large man from a bridge to stop the trolley and save the five people below. Although the outcome is mathematically similar, most people feel that physically pushing someone to their death is morally different from pulling a lever.

This story asks what the trolley problem reveals about psychopathy? Research suggests that people with psychopathic traits and people without them may sometimes choose the same utilitarian outcome, but for very different psychological reasons.

The connection between the trolley problem and psychopathy is therefore not simply about who sacrifices one person to save five. It is also about empathy, emotional response, moral reasoning and the motives behind the decision.

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