. 2022 Aug 22;17(8):e0273521. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0273521

Table 4. The versions of the TRIAGE dilemma added in experiment 2 (translated from French) in order to examine the plausibility of an action.

Versions contextualized within COVID-19	Versions not contextualized within COVID-19
You are the department head of a hospital in eastern France. A new coronavirus from China which causes respiratory irritation has appeared. Every day you receive more and more new patients with breathing problems. You don’t have enough oxygen for all of the patients. Five new patients are admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Their health condition requires immediate hospitalization and the administration of oxygen for the next 15 days. There is no more oxygen available, and you have no way to get it. The only way to save the five patients is to take the oxygen tank from one of your patients who is in critical condition. This solution is possible because the sharing of oxygen would suffice to save them. Only this solution guarantees a 100% probability of saving them. If you do that, the patient in critical condition will die but the other five will be saved. There is no other possible alternative. Transferring patients to another hospital is not feasible because they would not survive the transportation time. The patient in critical condition cannot share the oxygen because it would cause his or her death, and requisitioning oxygen from another hospital would take too much time. Time is short and you know that this is the one and only solution to save the five patients.	You are the department head of a hospital in eastern France. A new bacterium has contaminated the water of the city. Every day you receive more and more new patients with intestinal disorders and blood poisoning. You do not have enough antibiotics for all of the patients. Five new patients are admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Their health condition requires immediate hospitalization and a dose of antibiotics. There are no more antibiotics available, and you have no way to get some. The only way to save the five patients is to take antibiotics from one of your patients who is in critical condition. This solution is possible because the sharing of antibiotics would suffice to save them. Only this solution guarantees a 100% probability of saving them. If you do that, the patient in critical condition will die but the other five will be saved. There is no other possible alternative. Transferring patients to another hospital is not feasible because they would not survive the transportation time. The patient in critical condition cannot share the antibiotics because it would cause his or her death, and requisitioning antibiotics from another hospital would take too much time. Time is short and you know that this is the one and only solution to save the five patients.

Versions contextualized within COVID-19

Versions not contextualized within COVID-19

You are the department head of a hospital in eastern France. A new coronavirus from China which causes respiratory irritation has appeared. Every day you receive more and more new patients with breathing problems. You don’t have enough oxygen for all of the patients. Five new patients are admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Their health condition requires immediate hospitalization and the administration of oxygen for the next 15 days. There is no more oxygen available, and you have no way to get it. The only way to save the five patients is to take the oxygen tank from one of your patients who is in critical condition.
This solution is possible because the sharing of oxygen would suffice to save them. Only this solution guarantees a 100% probability of saving them.
If you do that, the patient in critical condition will die but the other five will be saved.
There is no other possible alternative. Transferring patients to another hospital is not feasible because they would not survive the transportation time. The patient in critical condition cannot share the oxygen because it would cause his or her death, and requisitioning oxygen from another hospital would take too much time.
Time is short and you know that this is the one and only solution to save the five patients.

You are the department head of a hospital in eastern France. A new bacterium has contaminated the water of the city. Every day you receive more and more new patients with intestinal disorders and blood poisoning. You do not have enough antibiotics for all of the patients. Five new patients are admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. Their health condition requires immediate hospitalization and a dose of antibiotics. There are no more antibiotics available, and you have no way to get some. The only way to save the five patients is to take antibiotics from one of your patients who is in critical condition.
This solution is possible because the sharing of antibiotics would suffice to save them. Only this solution guarantees a 100% probability of saving them.
If you do that, the patient in critical condition will die but the other five will be saved.
There is no other possible alternative. Transferring patients to another hospital is not feasible because they would not survive the transportation time. The patient in critical condition cannot share the antibiotics because it would cause his or her death, and requisitioning antibiotics from another hospital would take too much time.
Time is short and you know that this is the one and only solution to save the five patients.