LLM集体中出现沉默螺旋现象,源于历史与角色信号的协同作用。
Spiral of Silence in Large Language Model Agents
- 通过控制历史与角色信号,构建评估框架研究LLM群体意见演化。
- 历史+角色信号下,多数意见主导且呈现典型沉默螺旋模式。
- 无历史锚定则观点多样但无关联,说明沉默螺旋需信息积累基础。
沉默螺旋理论认为,少数派因惧怕社会孤立而缄默,导致多数意见主导公共话语。当主体为大语言模型(LLMs)时,该心理机制不直接适用。本文提出一种评估框架,考察LLM代理群体中是否可出现类似沉默螺旋的现象。设计四种受控条件,系统调节‘历史’与‘角色’信号的可用性。采用曼-肯德尔趋势检验、斯皮尔曼等级相关等方法,结合峰度与四分位距等集中度指标分析意见动态。在开源与闭源模型上的实验表明:历史与角色信号共同作用时,产生强多数主导和典型的沉默螺旋模式;仅历史信号引发强烈锚定效应;仅角色信号则促成多样但无关联的观点分布,表明缺乏历史锚定,沉默螺旋无法形成。研究连接计算社会学与负责任的AI设计,强调需监测并缓解LLM代理系统中的隐性从众风险。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The Spiral of Silence (SoS) theory holds that individuals with minority views often refrain from speaking out for fear of social isolation, enabling majority positions to dominate public discourse. When the 'agents' are large language models (LLMs), however, the classical psychological explanation is not directly applicable, since SoS was developed for human societies. This raises a central question: can SoS-like dynamics nevertheless emerge from purely statistical language generation in LLM collectives? We propose an evaluation framework for examining SoS in LLM agents. Specifically, we consider four controlled conditions that systematically vary the availability of 'History' and 'Persona' signals. Opinion dynamics are assessed using trend tests such as Mann-Kendall and Spearman's rank, along with concentration measures including kurtosis and interquartile range. Experiments across open-source and closed-source models show that history and persona together produce strong majority dominance and replicate SoS patterns; history signals alone induce strong anchoring; and persona signals alone foster diverse but uncorrelated opinions, indicating that without historical anchoring, SoS dynamics cannot emerge. The work bridges computational sociology and responsible AI design, highlighting the need to monitor and mitigate emergent conformity in LLM-agent systems.
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