Equity in distributive justice to virtual characters

Abstract

Behavioral economists and psychologists have investigated what factors affect trade-off between equal allocation and efficient allocation in asset allocation for others (distribution justice). In the present study we performed a behavioral experiment as a basic research of communication in cyberspace to test whether preference of equity or efficiency in asset allocation for virtual characters depends on their appearances. We found that geometrical-face characters invoked the equality preference similarly to real-face human others. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the love-contagion score in Emotional Contagion Scale (ECS) and the equality preference rate when there was no difference in a gross asset between equality and efficiency choices. Thus, humans have an equality preference over an efficiency preference both for human and non-human agents regardless of their visual appearances. The equity in distributive justice is affected by a human's emotional personality.