AN EXAM QUESTION set by Professor Dylan Selterman at the University of Maryland is going viral for being such a massive conundrum.
One of his students posted the question on Twitter and it was retweeted by thousands of baffled readers.
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It reads:
Select whether you want 2 points or 6 points added onto your final paper grade. But there’s a small catch, if more than 10 percent of the class selects 6 points, then no one gets any points.
The internet had some answers
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In an interview with ABC, Selterman told them he sets such a tragedy of the commons question for his students every year, and aims to discover if the students will pick the greater good over their own self interest.
In reality, if too many people overuse a common resource then everyone in the group suffers, not just the selfish ones… This is what I want students to learn from the exercise. Their actions affect others, and vice versa.
He said only one class have been selfless so far, and almost always, 10 percent of the class choose six and everyone loses.
So, be honest, what would you pick?
Poll Results:
6 (1650)
2 (1395)
COMMENTS (8)