Causal Stories

Story 39

Billy and Suzy are freight train conductors. One day, they happen to approach an old two-way rail bridge from opposite directions at the same time. There are signals on either side of the bridge. Billy's signal is green, so he is supposed to drive across the bridge immediately. Suzy's signal is green, so she is also supposed to drive across immediately. Neither of them realizes that the bridge is on the verge of collapse. If they both drive their trains onto the bridge at the same time, it will collapse. Neither train is heavy enough on its own to break the bridge, but both together will be too heavy for it. Billy follows his signal and drives his train onto the bridge immediately at the same time that Suzy follows her signal and drives her train onto the bridge. Both trains move onto the bridge at the same time, and at that moment the bridge collapses.

Question

Did Billy cause the bridge to collapse?

Majority Answer: No

Answer distribution over 25 people:

P(Yes): 0.20 P(No): 0.80

Is Ambiguous: False

Factor

These are the factors and their attributes present in this story.

Action Omission: Action

Causal Structure: Conjunctive

Event Normality: Normal

Norm Type: Prescriptive Norm

Time: Same Time Cause