Choice grid (a) and attributes (b). The conceptual foundation for the Troutville scenario in the present study is the ‘choice grid’, a schematic way to understand the concept of responsibility for health. The choice grid does not directly connect to the philosophical and bioethics literature on the concept of responsibility for health; rather, it operationalizes the concept for empirical exploration. The choice grid consists of two axes that represent two considerations typically weighed when attempting to judge consequences of a choice as fair or unfair. One consideration is whether the choice is made free and voluntary or not. Another consideration is whether the choice is ‘noble’ or ‘selfish’. These two considerations create the ‘choice grid’ as shown in panel (a) with four panels: not quite freely made ‘selfish’ choice (southwest); freely made ‘selfish’ choice (northwest); freely made ‘noble’ choice (northeast) and not quite freely made ‘noble’ choice (southeast). We then selected four attributes—professions and/or activities that persons do or have done—that are often considered, appropriately or inappropriately, to represent each of these four panels as shown in panel (b): criminals (southwest); extreme sport lovers (northwest); firefighters (northeast) and veterans (southeast).