タイトル：

The Empathetic Egoist: The Effect of Empathy on Plural Fairness Ideals

アブストラクト：

This study investigates the impact of promoting state empathy—context-specific empathy—on the distribution decisions of individuals with differing fairness ideals. Using a novel choice model based on Cappelen et al. (2007) but incorporating egoism, we classify participants into four types: egoist, strict egalitarian, libertarian, and liberal egalitarian. State empathy is promoted through role uncertainty, allowing both allocators and receivers to make decisions and exchange non-binding messages with their partners. The findings reveal that state empathy significantly increases altruistic distributions among egoists, suggesting that their behavior may stem from a lack of awareness of others rather than a fixed preference for self-interest. In contrast, strict egalitarians and libertarians tend to adjust their distributions closer to their fairness ideals, while liberal egalitarians show no notable changes. Additionally, men are more likely than women to behave as egoists in distribution tasks and exhibit stronger reactions to empathy-promoting interventions. These results suggest that egoism may represent rational behavior shaped by limited consideration of others and that gender differences in empathetic responses may reflect underlying differences in fairness considerations.