a complex situation involving a conflict between moral requirements, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another; moral psychologists distinguish between “personal” and “impersonal” moral dilemmas; an example of a personal moral dilemma is the footbridge version of the trolley problem, involving physically pushing someone from a bridge in order to save many others; an example of an impersonal moral dilemma is the switch version of the trolley problem, involving hitting a switch in order to steer the trolley to another track where it kills only one instead many other people; personal moral dilemmas tend to trigger stronger emotional reactions than impersonal ones and thus tend to result in stronger deontological judgments than impersonal moral dilemmas
defined by Lucius Caviola