The trolley problem as featured in the hit TV show The Good Place Colleen Hayes / NBC

Would you kill someone if it would save the lives of five others? This classic thought experiment is known as the trolley problem, and is taking on growing importance as we train self-driving cars to take to the road. It’s also had a recent rise in recognition thanks to its role in philosophical sitcom The Good Place. But the first real-life enactment of the problem in a lab – using mice – suggests we may have been approaching it wrong.

The trolley problem …