LLM代理集体合作像人,但个体决策机制不同。
Collective cooperation without individual fidelity in LLM agents
- 用人类博弈实验对比9个LLM代理行为模式。
- 宏观合作趋势相似,但个体差异和条件合作策略不匹配。
- 需多层验证:从整体到个体、规则都要对照,不能只看结果。
大型语言模型(LLMs)被广泛用于社会系统模拟,但其行为是否可作为人类决策的可靠代理尚不明确。本文通过大规模网络化囚徒困境实验,以相同交互协议、收益结构与网络拓扑,将九个开源权重的LLM代理与真实人类数据进行对比。结果显示,选定模型能复现合作动态的宏观特征,如合作率早期下降后趋于稳定。然而,这种宏观一致性并未延伸至微观层面:LLM群体低估了个体行为异质性,并生成与人类不同的条件合作模式。引入少量随机代理虽改善部分微观一致性,但未消除决策规则的偏差。研究揭示了基于LLM的社会代理存在宏观-微观脱节:集体行为看似类人,但底层机制并不一致。因此,验证LLM代理作为人类替代品,需同时比较宏观动态、个体异质性及情境依赖决策规则,而非仅依赖结果一致性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used as agents in simulations of social systems, yet it remains unclear when their behavior can be interpreted as a faithful proxy for human decision-making. Here we test LLM agents against a direct empirical benchmark: a large-scale networked Prisoner's Dilemma experiment with human participants. Using the same interaction protocol, payoff structure, and network topologies, we compare nine open-weight LLMs with the human data. The selected model reproduces several macro-level features of cooperation dynamics, including the early decline and later stabilization of cooperation. This aggregate agreement, however, does not extend uniformly to finer levels of behavior. LLM populations underestimate individual-level heterogeneity and generate conditional cooperation patterns that differ from those observed in humans. Adding a fraction of random agents improves some aspects of micro-level agreement, but does not remove the mismatch in decision rules. These findings reveal a macro--micro dissociation in LLM-based social agents: collective outcomes can appear human-like even when the underlying behavioral distributions and mechanisms are not. They suggest that validating LLM agents as human surrogates requires comparisons across aggregate dynamics, individual heterogeneity, and context-dependent decision rules, rather than outcome-level agreement alone.
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