How bad luck changes guilt in reckless driving

HostMost of us like to think we're fair. We judge people for the choices they make, not just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But when things go wrong, that logic seems to fly out the window. If two people do the exact same risky thing, but only one of them ends up causing a disaster, we treat them like they're totally different people. One is just someone who made a mistake, and the other is a criminal. It feels like luck is doing all the work there. How do we make sense of that?

GuestIt's a huge knot in how we think about right and wrong. Think about those two drivers. Both of them choose to look at a text while they're driving fast down a busy street. They both take that same risk. One driver looks up, and the road is clear. They get home, kiss their kids, and never think about it again. But the second driver looks up, and there's a child in the road. They hit the child. In our hearts, and in our laws, we see that second person as a monster. But if you look at just their choices, they did the exact same thing.

HostBut surely the result matters. I mean, one person caused a tragedy. You can't just ignore a grieving family and say, well, he didn't mean to do it.

GuestOh, it matters for the family, for sure. But the question is about the driver. If we only blame people for what they can control, then both drivers should be in the same boat. They both controlled the choice to look at the phone. Neither one controlled whether a kid stepped into the street at that exact split second. That's the part that's just luck. People who study this call it moral luck. It's the idea that stuff we can't control can actually change whether we're seen as good or bad.

HostWait, that feels wrong. If I'm a good person, I'm a good person because of what I choose to do, not because a cat didn't run in front of my car.

GuestRight? That's what we want to believe. We want to believe there's a part of us that stays the same no matter what happens outside. But think about how we talk. If you try to save someone from a fire and you fail, you're a hero who tried. If you succeed, you're just a hero. But if you're a doctor and you make a tiny mistake that usually doesn't matter, but this time the patient dies, we say you're a bad doctor. We let the result color the person.

HostSo are you saying we should stop doing that? That we should just fine both drivers the same amount and call it a day?

GuestIt's not that simple. If we only judged people for their choices, we would've to know exactly what was in their heads. And we can't do that. Results are clear. They're real. If someone dies, that's a fact we can all see. If we just tried to guess how reckless someone was being, we would be arguing forever. The result gives us a solid hook to hang our judgment on.

HostBut it still feels like a gamble. It's like life is a big game of dice, and if you roll a one, you're a villain.

GuestIt's a gamble. And it goes even deeper than just what happens after you make a choice. There's also the luck of who you're when you're born. Some people are born with a short fuse. Some grow up in places where you have to be tough just to get by. We judge them for losing their cool, but we don't judge the person who was born calm and never had to face a hard day in their life. We treat the calm person like they're better, even though they might just be luckier.

HostHmm. I'm not sure I buy that. We still have a say in how we act. You can't just blame your genes or your neighborhood for everything.

GuestYou definitely have a say. But the hand you're dealt changes how hard it's to make the right choice. If you're starving, stealing a loaf of bread is a choice, but it's a much harder choice than it's for someone with a full fridge. We still blame the thief. We rarely stop to praise the rich person for not stealing. We just assume they're good.

HostSo we're basically judging people for the weather around them, not just how they drive.

GuestIt makes our world feel very shaky. If my goodness depends on a kid not stepping into the road, then I'm never really safe. I could become a bad person tomorrow just by being unlucky. It's a scary thought because it means we don't have as much power over our own lives as we think. We want to believe who we're is like a rock, but it might be more like a sandcastle that the tide can wash away.

HostDoes this mean our whole legal system is a bit of a sham? We have different names for trying to do a crime and actually doing it, even if the person tried just as hard either way.

GuestIt's a mess, yeah. If you fire a gun at someone and miss because a bird flew by, you might go to jail for a few years. If you hit them, you might go for life. The pull of the trigger was the same. The only difference was a bird. It feels like the law is just reacting to our feelings of anger or grief, rather than being fair to the person on trial.

HostBut maybe that's what the law is for. To give people a sense of peace when things go wrong.

GuestMaybe. But if we want to be truly fair, we have to look at the gap between what we do and what happens. We have to realize that most of us are just one bad break away from being the person we look down on. It should make us a little more humble when we judge others. We're all just walking on thin ice and hoping it doesn't crack.

GuestWe judge people by the wreckage they leave behind, even if they weren't the ones who blew up the ship.

HostThose two drivers might have had the same heart when they started the car, but we only ever see the one who makes it home.