Causal Stories

Story 74

Billy and Suzy work for the same company. They work in different rooms and both of them sometimes need to access the central computer of the company. Nobody at the company is aware that if two people are logged into the central computer at the same time, some spam emails containing dangerous viruses are immediately deleted from the central computer. In order to make sure that one person is always available to answer incoming phone calls, the company issued the following official policy: Suzy is the only one permitted to log into the central computer in the mornings, whereas Billy is the only one permitted to log into the central computer in the afternoons. Billy is not permitted to log into the central computer in the morning. Today at 9 am, Billy and Suzy both log into the central computer at the same time. Immediately, some work emails containing dangerous viruses are deleted from the central computer.

Question

Did Suzy cause the central computer to delete some work emails containing dangerous viruses?

Majority Answer: Yes

Answer distribution over 25 people:

P(Yes): 0.68 P(No): 0.32

Is Ambiguous: False

Factor

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

Action Omission: Action

Agent Awareness: Unaware

Causal Structure: Conjunctive

Event Normality: Normal

Norm Type: Prescriptive Norm

Time: Same Time Cause