Akira Goto
About my research専門の紹介
I work in the computational and behavioral social sciences — behavioral economics, experimental social science, and computational social science. Using experiments as my main method, I study social behavior — cooperation, trust, altruism, and inequality aversion — as well as nudges, the applied face of behavioral economics.
Beyond the laboratory, I run large-scale online experiments on crowdsourcing platforms and field experiments with municipalities and firms, drawing on data from diverse populations to examine cooperation and ethics in human society.
I am the Principal Investigator of Goto Lab at the School of Information and Communication, Meiji University, where I lead these research projects.
Recently I have extended this work to the sociality of AI: how socially artificial agents behave, and whether they are steered by dark patterns and nudges in the same way people are, examined through economic game experiments.
Research themes研究テーマ
Cooperation and social dilemmas
Using public goods games, catastrophe games, and related economic game experiments to examine the asymmetric effects of loss, disaster, and volatility on altruism and cooperation.
Trust under surveillance
Experimental work on how surveillance is tolerated in an information society, and how the feeling of being watched affects well-being and social preferences — from CCTV to social media.
Sociality of AI and cooperation with humans
Crowdsourced experiments with virtual AI agents examine how trust between humans and AI is created, damaged, and restored. A further line asks how far AI itself exhibits "sociality," and whether it is steered by dark patterns and nudges as humans are.
Nudges in the wild
Designing and testing nudges and incentive systems that promote recycling and pro-environmental behavior, in partnership with local governments and firms.
Inequality and economic mobility
How the visibility of wealth shapes economic mobility and social preferences, studied through both game experiments and big-data analysis. See Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination (2025).
Methods for online experiments
Building experimental environments around oTree, and studying quality-control problems in crowdsourced experiments such as satisficing and instructional manipulation checks.
Academic career経歴
Selected publications主要論文
Presentations & talks講演・口頭発表
Books著書
Honors & awards受賞
Teaching & affiliations担当科目・所属
- Creative Communication (Behavioral Economics)Undergraduate
- Human Behavior under UncertaintyUndergraduate
- Information and Economic BehaviorUndergraduate
- Problem Analysis Seminar I / II (3rd year)Undergraduate
- Problem Solving Seminar I / II (4th year)Undergraduate
- Information Literacy (Social Statistics)Undergraduate
- Data Analysis I / IIUndergraduate
- Introductory SeminarUndergraduate
- Advanced Research (Behavioral Economics)Graduate School
- Decision TheoryYamanashi Eiwa College (adjunct)
- Vice Chair, Program CommitteeAssociation of Behavioral Economics and Finance2026 — Present
- Board MemberAssociation of Behavioral Economics and Finance2025 — Present
- Board MemberSociety of Socio-Informatics2025 — Present
- Steering Committee MemberIPSJ SIG on Information Systems and Social Environment2025 — Present
- Board MemberJapan Society of Information and Communication Research2020 — Present
- Research FellowDoshisha University, Center for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness2020 — Present
- Executive Board MemberAssociation of Behavioral Economics and Finance2023 — 2025
- Secretary GeneralSociety of Socio-Informatics2021 — 2025
- Editor-in-ChiefIPSJ Journal, Special Issue on Information Systems2024 — 2025
Funded projects主要研究プロジェクト
Emergence of hierarchy and the determinants of tyranny and good governance: evidence from two new experimental games
Sociality around AI: sociality among AI agents and sociality toward AI
Trust dynamics between AI and humans: creation, damage, and restoration in game experiments
Empirical study of inequality-correcting behavior through experiments and big-data analysis
How unexpected events shape preferences: evidence from online and panel experiments
Kajima Foundation Research Grant
Joint research with industry: applying behavioral economics and nudges in practice
Policy & social implementation政策・社会実装
Sapporo City health app "Arukasaru"
I advise on the design and operation of "Arukasaru," the health app provided by the City of Sapporo under the theme of a healthy city that connects people and neighborhoods, contributing a behavioral economics and nudge perspective.
Expert column series
I write regularly for the expert column in the app's Explore section, introducing findings from behavioral economics to a general audience.
Get in touch連絡先
- [click to reveal]
- Office
- Meiji University, Izumi CampusSchool of Information and Communication
- Researcher ID
- 80707886KAKEN