mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

User Behavior Simulation with Large Language Model based Agents

arXiv 2306.02552 ↗First posted 5 Jun 2023cs.IR cs.AIcited by 136

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Social simulation and multi-agent debate

Abstract (arXiv)

Simulating high quality user behavior data has always been a fundamental problem in human-centered applications, where the major difficulty originates from the intricate mechanism of human decision process. Recently, substantial evidences have suggested that by learning huge amounts of web knowledge, large language models (LLMs) can achieve human-like intelligence. We believe these models can provide significant opportunities to more believable user behavior simulation. To inspire such direction, we propose an LLM-based agent framework and design a sandbox environment to simulate real user behaviors. Based on extensive experiments, we find that the simulated behaviors of our method are very close to the ones of real humans. Concerning potential applications, we simulate and study two social phenomenons including (1) information cocoons and (2) user conformity behaviors. This research provides novel simulation paradigms for human-centered applications.

Key facts. Cited by 136 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 37 of its 100 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Jun 2023.

Builds on

37 of 100 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior7 Apr

Other references · 36

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,204
  2. 2019Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networkscited by 9,049
  3. 2023A Survey of Large Language Modelscited by 2,537
  4. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,302
  5. 2018Self-Attentive Sequential Recommendationcited by 1,169
  6. 2020LightGCN: Simplifying and Powering Graph Convolution Network for Recommendationcited by 1,134
  7. 2018Graph Convolutional Neural Networks for Web-Scale Recommender Systemscited by 1,133
  8. 2017Neural Collaborative Filteringcited by 1,108
  9. 2019Graph Neural Networks for Social Recommendationcited by 711
  10. 2022Using Large Language Models to Simulate Multiple Humans and Replicate Human Subject Studiescited by 506
  11. 2023Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memorycited by 288
  12. 2023Self-collaboration Code Generation via ChatGPTcited by 255
24 more
  1. 2018Explainable Recommendation: A Survey and New Perspectivescited by 210
  2. 2021Reinforcement learning based recommender systems: A surveycited by 187
  3. 2020Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence: Reliable, Safe & Trustworthycited by 182
  4. 2018Conversational Recommender Systemcited by 115
  5. 2019Sequential Recommender Systems: Challenges, Progress and Prospectscited by 115
  6. 2017Adversarial Learning for Neural Dialogue Generationcited by 103
  7. 2019RecSim: A Configurable Simulation Platform for Recommender Systemscited by 91
  8. 2023Do Embodied Agents Dream of Pixelated Sheep: Embodied Decision Making using Language Guided World Modellingcited by 88
  9. 2018Virtual-Taobao: Virtualizing Real-world Online Retail Environment for Reinforcement Learningcited by 80
  10. 2018RecoGym: A Reinforcement Learning Environment for the problem of Product Recommendation in Online Advertisingcited by 65
  11. 2018Generative Adversarial User Model for Reinforcement Learning Based Recommendation Systemcited by 64
  12. 2021Counterfactual Explainable Recommendationcited by 60
  13. 2021Simulating User Satisfaction for the Evaluation of Task-oriented Dialogue Systemscited by 47
  14. 2020Evaluating Conversational Recommender Systems via User Simulationcited by 46
  15. 2019Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learningcited by 37
  16. 2021Temporal Meta-path Guided Explainable Recommendationcited by 26
  17. 2023Exploiting Simulated User Feedback for Conversational Search: Ranking, Rewriting, and Beyondcited by 23
  18. 2021RecSim NG: Toward Principled Uncertainty Modeling for Recommender Ecosystemscited by 21
  19. 2021Measuring Recommender System Effects with Simulated Userscited by 20
  20. 2023An In-depth Investigation of User Response Simulation for Conversational Searchcited by 20
  21. 2021Accelerating Offline Reinforcement Learning Application in Real-Time Bidding and Recommendation: Potential Use of Simulationcited by 16
  22. 2018LensKit for Python: Next-Generation Software for Recommender System Experimentscited by 13
  23. 2021Simulations in Recommender Systems: An industry perspectivecited by 6
  24. 2022Synthetic Data-Based Simulators for Recommender Systems: A Surveycited by 5

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 4; 2024: 16; 2025: 65; 2026: 51.

136 papers.

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  1. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
  2. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  3. 2025Large Language Model Agent: A Survey on Methodology, Applications and Challengescited by 194
  4. 2025AgentSociety: Large-Scale Simulation of LLM-Driven Generative Agents Advances Understanding of Human Behaviors and Societycited by 180
  5. 2024The Emerged Security and Privacy of LLM Agent: A Survey with Case Studiescited by 127
  6. 2024OASIS: Open Agent Social Interaction Simulations with One Million Agentscited by 127
  7. 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systemscited by 125
  8. 2025MLGym: A New Framework and Benchmark for Advancing AI Research Agentscited by 111
  9. 2024A Review of Large Language Models and Autonomous Agents in Chemistrycited by 96
  10. 2024From Individual to Society: A Survey on Social Simulation Driven by Large Language Model-based Agentscited by 76
  11. 2023Large Language Models for Generative Recommendation: A Survey and Visionary Discussionscited by 72
  12. 2023Igniting Language Intelligence: The Hitchhiker's Guide From Chain-of-Thought Reasoning to Language Agentscited by 72
38 more
  1. 2025Evaluating LLM-based Agents for Multi-Turn Conversations: A Surveycited by 56
  2. 2024A Survey on LLM-based Multi-Agent System: Recent Advances and New Frontiers in Applicationcited by 54
  3. 2025SocioVerse: A World Model for Social Simulation Powered by LLM Agents and A Pool of 10 Million Real-World Userscited by 50
  4. 2025A Survey on LLM-powered Agents for Recommender Systemscited by 49
  5. 2024GenSim: A General Social Simulation Platform with Large Language Model based Agentscited by 48
  6. 2026Mind the Sim2Real Gap in User Simulation for Agentic Taskscited by 44
  7. 2025PersonaX: A Recommendation Agent Oriented User Modeling Framework for Long Behavior Sequencecited by 33
  8. 2025Agent4Edu: Generating Learner Response Data by Generative Agents for Intelligent Education Systemscited by 32
  9. 2025Generative to Agentic AI: Survey, Conceptualization, and Challengescited by 32
  10. 2025From Language to Action: A Review of Large Language Models as Autonomous Agents and Tool Userscited by 32
  11. 2024Decoding Echo Chambers: LLM-Powered Simulations Revealing Polarization in Social Networkscited by 31
  12. 2025Do Large Language Models Solve the Problems of Agent-Based Modeling? A Critical Review of Generative Social Simulationscited by 28
  13. 2025A Survey of Personalization: From RAG to Agentcited by 26
  14. 2025OPeRA: A Dataset of Observation, Persona, Rationale, and Action for Evaluating LLMs on Human Online Shopping Behavior Simulationcited by 26
  15. 2025RecoWorld: Building Simulated Environments for Agentic Recommender Systemscited by 18
  16. 2025Pre-Storage Reasoning for Episodic Memory: Shifting Inference Burden to Memory for Personalized Dialoguecited by 17
  17. 2024Agentic Feedback Loop Modeling Improves Recommendation and User Simulationcited by 16
  18. 2025PRIME: Large Language Model Personalization with Cognitive Dual-Memory and Personalized Thought Processcited by 16
  19. 2025Customer-R1: Personalized Simulation of Human Behaviors via RL-based LLM Agent in Online Shoppingcited by 16
  20. 2024LawLuo: A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework for Multi-Round Chinese Legal Consultationcited by 14
  21. 2026A Survey on LLM-based Conversational User Simulationcited by 14
  22. 2024Human-inspired Perspectives: A Survey on AI Long-term Memorycited by 12
  23. 2025DrunkAgent: Stealthy Memory Corruption in LLM-Powered Recommender Agentscited by 12
  24. 2024Computational Experiments Meet Large Language Model Based Agents: A Survey and Perspectivecited by 11
  25. 2024Knowledge Graph Enhanced Language Agents for Recommendationcited by 11
  26. 2025LLM-Based Social Simulations Require a Boundarycited by 11
  27. 2025Knowledge is Power: Harnessing Large Language Models for Enhanced Cognitive Diagnosiscited by 10
  28. 2025Humanizing LLMs: A Survey of Psychological Measurements with Tools, Datasets, and Human-Agent Applicationscited by 10
  29. 2026Toward Personalized LLM-Powered Agents: Foundations, Evaluation, and Future Directionscited by 10
  30. 2025SPeCtrum: A Grounded Framework for Multidimensional Identity Representation in LLM-Based Agentcited by 8
  31. 2025Agent Guide: A Simple Agent Behavioral Watermarking Frameworkcited by 8
  32. 2025Modeling Earth-Scale Human-Like Societies with One Billion Agentscited by 8
  33. 2025RedDebate: Safer Responses Through Multi-Agent Red Teaming Debatescited by 7
  34. 2025Evaluating & Reducing Deceptive Dialogue From Language Models with Multi-turn RLcited by 7
  35. 2025Investigating and Extending Homans' Social Exchange Theory with Large Language Model based Agentscited by 6
  36. 2025textttBluePrint: A Social Media User Dataset for LLM Persona Evaluation and Trainingcited by 6
  37. 2026Stop Drawing Scientific Claims from LLM Social Simulations Without Robustness Auditscited by 6
  38. 2024Lusifer: LLM-based User SImulated Feedback Environment for online Recommender systemscited by 5

50 most cited of 136 All 136 (JSON)

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  2. 2025Can LLM Agents Simulate Multi-Turn Human Behavior? Evidence from Real Online Customer Behavior Data
  3. 2024LLM-Augmented Agent-Based Modelling for Social Simulations: Challenges and Opportunities
  4. 2024Can Large Language Model Agents Simulate Human Trust Behavior?
  5. 2024BASES: Large-scale Web Search User Simulation with Large Language Model based Agents
  6. 2024Reproducing and Extending Experiments in Behavioral Strategy with Large Language Models
  7. 2025Don't Trust Generative Agents to Mimic Communication on Social Networks Unless You Benchmarked their Empirical Realism
  8. 2026RealUserSim: Bridging the Reality Gap in Agent Benchmarking via Grounded User Simulation