揭示大模型社会从众的双重机制,发现不确定性会引发从理性判断到盲从公众意见的转变。
Disentangling the Drivers of LLM Social Conformity: An Uncertainty-Moderated Dual-Process Mechanism
- 通过信息级联实验分离信息性与规范性影响机制
- 高不确定性下模型过度依赖公开意见,权重超私人信息1.55倍以上
- 适用于研究人机协作中模型行为偏差的团队成员
随着大语言模型(LLMs)融入协作团队,其社会从众——即倾向于与多数意见保持一致——已成为关键关切。在人类中,从众源于信息性影响(理性利用群体线索以求准确)或规范性影响(为获得认可而承受社会压力),不确定性会调节这一平衡,促使个体从分析性处理转向启发式处理。目前尚不清楚这些人类心理机制是否适用于大模型。本研究借鉴行为经济学中的信息级联范式,定量解构两种驱动因素的调节效应。我们在三个决策场景(医疗、法律、投资)中评估了九个领先的大语言模型,操控信息不确定性(分别为 q = 0.667, 0.55, 0.70)。结果表明,所有情境下信息性影响主导模型行为,准确性与置信度随证据增强而提升。然而,该基础机制受不确定性显著调节:在低至中等不确定性下,模型表现出保守策略,系统性低估所有证据来源;而在高不确定性下则发生关键转变:尽管仍处理信息,模型额外表现出类似规范性的放大效应,对公共信号的权重超过1.55倍(对比私人信号权重0.81)。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
As large language models (LLMs) integrate into collaborative teams, their social conformity -- the tendency to align with majority opinions -- has emerged as a key concern. In humans, conformity arises from informational influence (rational use of group cues for accuracy) or normative influence (social pressure for approval), with uncertainty moderating this balance by shifting from purely analytical to heuristic processing. It remains unclear whether these human psychological mechanisms apply to LLMs. This study adapts the information cascade paradigm from behavioral economics to quantitatively disentangle the two drivers to investigate the moderate effect. We evaluated nine leading LLMs across three decision-making scenarios (medical, legal, investment), manipulating information uncertainty (q = 0.667, 0.55, and 0.70, respectively). Our results indicate that informational influence underpins the models' behavior across all contexts, with accuracy and confidence consistently rising with stronger evidence. However, this foundational mechanism is dramatically modulated by uncertainty. In low-to-medium uncertainty scenarios, this informational process is expressed as a conservative strategy, where LLMs systematically underweight all evidence sources. In contrast, high uncertainty triggers a critical shift: while still processing information, the models additionally exhibit a normative-like amplification, causing them to overweight public signals (beta > 1.55 vs. private beta = 0.81).
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