Mr. Beast DIVIDES INTERNET with red, blue button dilemma | RISING

Añadido: 2026-05-07

[00:00:05]So, the red button, blue button dilemma has been dividing the internet for several days, sparking debate about ethics and morality. The dilemma has floated around online for several years, but recently went viral again after the writer Tim Urban, and then also YouTuber Mr. Beast posed this question to their followers on X. The premise is every person in the world is sent to a private room to take a vote by pressing either a red button or a blue button. If more than 50% of the population presses the blue button, everyone survives, but if less than 50% press the blue button, then everyone who chooses blue dies, while everyone who chooses red lives.

[00:00:41]The question is simply, which button would you press?

[00:00:45]Do you guarantee your own safety by choosing red, or do you risk your own possible death in the hopes of saving everyone by choosing blue?

[00:00:53]So, Robbie, there's only one right answer here. You ready? Which one do you choose?

[00:00:58]>> I correct. I I agree there's only one right answer.

[00:01:00]>> Okay, so please >> button, absolutely. And you are a gremlin. I'm sorry. You're the worst I don't want to be alive with a a million Robbies that press the red thinking about self-absorbed [clears throat] >> be. No, I would choose the blue. I would choose the blue because say my kid didn't pick Say my kid was a good person and picked blue. Like I want to go I want to be alive with all the people that picked blue and balances out with the red button choosers like you who picked the other button.

[00:01:22]>> break it down? And no no, I don't want to break it down. I don't want to be I would prefer not to be alive with a room full of reds. You're not thinking about it.

[00:01:29]>> No, I am. I am. What if one person What if what I don't want anybody to die.

[00:01:33]What if one person picks the blue?

[00:01:34]>> should press If every SINGLE PERSON PRESSES >> POWER IN ADVANCE. You said we go in the room and everyone makes this type of moral decision.

[00:01:40]>> the blue button?

[00:01:41]>> Because you want humanity to survive.

[00:01:43]>> Humanity survives if you put the red button, too. No, but then everyone has to be on the same page. Some people morally walk in there and like, well, if one >> Well, I hope there aren't that many of them, but as long as it's not 50%, they'll live, too. No.

[00:01:54]>> If everyone picks the red button, everyone >> picks the blue button, everyone also lives, though.

[00:01:58]>> Right, but If everyone PICKS THE RED BUTTON, everyone else is Everyone picks the blue button Everyone lives. Yes.

[00:02:04]What's the problem?

[00:02:04]>> put your life at risk not knowing what other people will do. Yes, hopefully >> pick the red button, let me put it this way. If you pick the red button, you live for sure, and you cause no harm to anyone else.

[00:02:14]>> Hope for the best in our society, press the blue, and hopefully more than 50% of people are good people. I don't want to share a planet with people who would press the blue button cuz it's objectively wrong.

[00:02:23]>> No, I objectively wrong to press the red and be all about self only. Either way, I'm going to survive. You got to think about others. We talked about that with the EPA today. We might not be dealing with the dirty waters of Flint, but we think about others, right? That's why I'll press the blue button.

[00:02:37]>> But in this >> But just in case someone does not press red, I don't want them to die.

[00:02:41]Even if one person presses >> But every person should press red because it's in their best interest and everyone else's best >> But knowing how the world works, I need 50% of people to or more to press blue because everyone's not going to press red, so I don't want anybody to die >> this this is a this is this situation does not always come up, but this is a situation where maximizing your own chances of survival also is best for everyone because by pressing red, you live for sure, and it's the logical thing for every single person to do. If every single person does the logical thing, which is press a button to save my own life, everyone will live. The consequences of everyone on Earth doing a thing that maximizes their own safe chances of survival will result in everyone surviving. And that's a good That's a good thing. You don't get a chance. You saw how these polls have been working on us. They've been pretty split. Cuz people are It makes me bad.

[00:03:34]This is why democracy is bad. People are not rational economically and from a game theory perspective.

[00:03:40]>> It's not irrational. People don't think about other people, so I don't want to be alive with all the reds who just think about themselves. You just said it. Self-preservation is a key here.

[00:03:47]Everyone will be preserved.

[00:03:50]>> Okay, you're saying there are circumstances in which you don't want to exist. That's actually not rational behavior.

[00:03:55]>> [laughter] >> So, I I I that is a mental delusion you should be treated psychiatrically. So, in this question, no. In this question, they're not saying, okay, perfect circumstances, you get to power with everyone who's going to vote in advance. Tell them So, you don't get that chance. So, knowing people, I'm going to press the blue because some people are not going to press red, and we are going to kill off all the people who thought morally on this question. So, myself tells me that to be a good contributor to society, I don't want all those people to die, and I hope that more than 50% of people are going to press blue like I have been seeing in the polls.

[00:04:27]>> If you How about this? If everyone thinks like me, more people will live.

[00:04:33]Everyone is not going to think like you, though.

[00:04:35]>> If more people think like me, everyone will live.

[00:04:36]>> Everyone is not going to think like you.

[00:04:37]Some really good people are going to press blue and die.

[00:04:40]>> How about this? If your way works >> If you're pressing blue, you are putting yourself in harm's way, and you're placing an obligation on me.

[00:04:49]You are You are like putting yourself in danger. It's like you are swimming out You don't know how to swim, and you just jumped in the deep end of the pool, and you said, "You Now you have to do something. Now I have to alter my behavior." I was going to rationally try to protect myself and everyone else by pressing the red button, but now you've done something to put yourself in this position.

[00:05:05]>> protect yourself. It It only protects you. It does no harm to you because you should do the same thing.

[00:05:12]There's the deep end and the shallow end, and you're splashing around in the deep end, and you don't know how to swim, and you're hoping that I'm going to go over there to save you.

[00:05:20]>> what happens when people usually don't know how to swim? There's either a lifeguard or some good Samaritan that saves the day, and those are the beautiful moments >> Pressing the blue button >> May I?

[00:05:27]That unfortunately, we don't talk enough about in the news. That there are good people all over the world every single day that do good things. It doesn't make the 6:00 news that somebody walked the kid across the street to make sure they didn't get hit by a car, right? But those people exist. I don't want those people who think in that way to die because all the people who think of selfishly press red. You are You are imposing an obligation on other people, which is never a good idea when you can not do that and have the optimal outcome.

[00:05:51]>> Yeah, but if everyone is not armed with the information that you you have after thinking about this analytically for hours and even 24 hours cuz we talked about maybe doing this yesterday, you're armed with a lot of information that you feel is intellectual about why you press red. If people just made a knee-jerk decision and pressed blue, I want those people to live.

[00:06:08]It But it's very simple why you would press red. You guarantee your own safety, and it doesn't hurt anyone else as long as they press red, too. So, if every person does the best thing for them, we will have the optimal outcome.

[00:06:21]>> There's a fundamental difference about doing the best thing for you or doing the best thing for the greater society.

[00:06:27]I have to hope >> No, you're doing the best thing for the greater society, right? Doing the best thing for the country, doing the best thing for the world. It's like why we don't litter, right? The greater you would be easier to throw the trash on the street, but you don't litter because you're thinking about the future.

[00:06:40]>> the street does hurt other people.

[00:06:43]Pressing the red button doesn't hurt anyone.

[00:06:45]>> because if people aren't armed with the same information as you, they might press blue, and then they're going to die.

[00:06:51]If you just press blue, they'd be fine.

[00:06:54]Cuz you would take us over that 50% threshold.

[00:06:55]>> a huge risk.

[00:06:58]You're asking someone to take a huge big huge big huge risk. Cuz you didn't think about it hard enough.

[00:07:05]>> reward. Reward is you live amongst great people.

[00:07:08]Big risk, big reward. You I don't You can't take that big a I don't think people would recommend to their families and their loved ones and no, I'd say press the red button every single time.

[00:07:21]>> This is like the rapture. They're going to leave all the bad people >> it's not like >> [laughter] >> a little BIT SIMILAR TO THE prisoner's dilemma, but in the prisoner's dilemma, doing the optimal thing for you results in everyone suffer like you know, the prisoner's dilemma is when you and you and another guy, you robbed a store or whatever, you're being interrogated by the police. The best thing is to say nothing, but if you say nothing and the other guy talks, you get really screwed.

[00:07:46]If you both say nothing, that's great, but you can't trust that the other person is going to do that, so they talk, but in that case, you do harm the other person.

[00:07:56]Like that that is a situation where if you talk if you do the thing that's best for you, you do hurt the other person. That's different from this situation where if you do the things that's best for you, you actually impose no problem on the other person as long as they also do the thing that's >> I just would love to see what our viewers say because when I looked at Mr. Beast's poll yesterday, I think it was just like 56. Hopefully, it's still there. Picked blue.

[00:08:19]And Okay, 50 It's still 56%. So, we would all live. Thank god for the people who think about others.

[00:08:26]>> in this scenario, we're all going to be fine, then. Right, we are.

[00:08:29]>> Cuz I picked the red >> going to look at you differently the rest of the day.

[00:08:32]And I'm going to be like, "Sinji, self-absorbed. Don't talk to me anymore. I'm not doing the show anymore." It is not selfish to want to live at no cost to >> And it's not selfish to want other people who might have made a mistake in picking the button that wasn't self-involved.

[00:08:46]>> I think it's self-involved to pick blue.

[00:08:48]It's saying, "I've made myself a victim.

[00:08:50]Come save me."

[00:08:52]"I want you to have to help me. I want you to risk your own life >> Mr. Beast's millions of followers disagree with you.

[00:08:59]So, you're in the minority here.

[00:09:01]>> There was two paths. We could walk on the path where there's no quicksand, or I could wade through the quicksand and say, "Hey, at great risk to you, come save me now." That's what you did. I just walked past the quicksand.

[00:09:12]>> One of my wise friends from Ethiopia told me this once, and something I'm going to share with you. Don't be ashamed of the reality. You're in the minority here. I know I Most people pick blue. You'd be saved.

[00:09:22]>> aware that I'm in the minority. This is why I'm against democracy and systems where other people pick decisions for me.

[00:09:28]>> Why? It saved your life, also.

[00:09:30]Every 56% picking the blue saved your life. So, be happy that democracy exists in this particular case. I I don't I I don't want to Well, I'm happy to live among people who pick blue, but I don't want to be governed by people who pick blue. And I don't want to be governed by people who picked red.

[00:09:47]Okay. Well, I I I I I I I >> makes a very selfish That makes a very selfish society. They're going to do everything with self in mind, and everybody who picked blue is going to think about the greater good. Well, tell us what you think uh in the comments, tweet at us. Uh we want to hear from you. Blue versus red, let us know.

[00:10:04]We'll have a lot more to talk about on Rising. Stay with us.

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