Do you think most people, faced with the princess's hard choices, would save their loved one or send him or her to death? In other words, are...

In Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger" the king is described as "semi-barbaric" and his system of justice is based on luck and fate. It is, in many ways, quite brutal. His daughter is described as being similar in nature:

This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is usual in such cases, she was...

In Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady or the Tiger" the king is described as "semi-barbaric" and his system of justice is based on luck and fate. It is, in many ways, quite brutal. His daughter is described as being similar in nature:

This semi-barbaric king had a daughter as blooming as his most florid fancies, and with a soul as fervent and imperious as his own. As is usual in such cases, she was the apple of his eye, and was loved by him above all humanity.

Because she is semi-barbaric she probably sent her lover to his death. She could not abide her lover being married to a woman she loathed: 

The girl was lovely, but she had dared to raise her eyes to the loved one of the princess; and, with all the intensity of the savage blood transmitted to her through long lines of wholly barbaric ancestors, she hated the woman who blushed and trembled behind that silent door.

Today, if such an institution existed it's difficult to say what someone in the princess's situation would do. It may depend on one's philosophy concerning the essential nature of human beings. Some may feel that people are inherently good and when faced with such a decision they would do the right thing. Others, however, may look at humanity with a dimmer view and feel it quite possible that the princess would send her lover to the door with the tiger simply out of spite and jealousy.

In my opinion, most people would point the young man to the door with the lady. Although the media generally reports the negative far more than the positive, there are many more examples of people being charitable and selfless than being mean and cruel. Sports figures are often in the news for doing something reprehensible, but there are hundreds more stories of athletes helping people which never get reported. People are essentially good. If they weren't we would not have a system of justice where the accused has a chance to prove their innocence. The average person would not want to risk a person's life on mere chance.