Dr. Dylan Selterman pits Maryland students against each other to test their ethics

Dr. Dylan Selterman posed the question to his University of Maryland class
Psychology lecturer said their answer determined if they got extra marks
Asked students whether they wanted 2 or 6 points added to their grades
The catch was if more than 1 in 10 selected 6, the whole class missed out

Wills Robinson For Dailymail.com

Published:
05:39 GMT, 17 July 2015

|
Updated:
05:42 GMT, 17 July 2015

View
comments

A professor has prompted an outcry by his students after posing an exam question which asked them whether they wanted extra marks - in a bid to test their ethics.

Dr. Dylan Selterman, a psychology lecturer at the University of Maryland, created a moral dilemma to his class with the cruel choice, and caused many to vent their frustration on social media.

Is he cruel? Dr. Dylan Selterman, a psychology lecturer at the University of Maryland, created a moral dilemma in class, and caused many to vent their frustration on social media

Without fail, he said, more than 10 per cent of their class choose the option for high points, which means all students lose out.

The question went viral after a student uploaded a screen grab on Twitter and wrote: 'What kind of professor does this'.

Some said he was cruel, but he insists it isn't the first time his students have been presented with the choice.

Florida man who sleeps in his car outside Mark Zuckerberg's...

College student, 20, dies days after being found naked and...

He told ABC News: 'I've been doing this exercise every semester since the first time I taught at the college level in 2008.

'Only one time did students stay under the threshold for the selfish option (I think that was a random fluke).'

He added: 'In reality, if too many people overuse a common resource then everyone in the group suffers, not just the selfish ones. This is what I want students to learn from the exercise. Their actions affect others, and vice versa.'

He wrote: 'Select whether you want 2 points or 6 points added onto your final paper grade. But there's a small catch: if more than 10 per cent of the class selects 6 points, then no one gets any points.' Without fail, he said, more than 10 per cent of their class choose the option for high points, which means all students lose out.

Dr Selterman insisted he was not the one who came up with the question.

He said he was given the same choice when in Steve Drigotas' class at Johns Hopkins, and the result was the same.

'When I was an undergrad in his class, I chose the lower point option and was very upset with my peers for choosing the higher point option!' he said