mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Personality Traits in Large Language Models

arXiv 2307.00184 ↗First posted 1 Jul 2023cs.CL cs.AI cs.CYcited by 169

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Cited by 39 in LLM agents and tool use, but placed by its own abstract, which didn’t fit.

Abstract (arXiv)

The advent of large language models (LLMs) has revolutionized natural language processing, enabling the generation of coherent and contextually relevant human-like text. As LLMs increasingly powerconversational agents used by the general public world-wide, the synthetic personality traits embedded in these models, by virtue of training on large amounts of human data, is becoming increasingly important. Since personality is a key factor determining the effectiveness of communication, we present a novel and comprehensive psychometrically valid and reliable methodology for administering and validating personality tests on widely-used LLMs, as well as for shaping personality in the generated text of such LLMs. Applying this method to 18 LLMs, we found: 1) personality measurements in the outputs of some LLMs under specific prompting configurations are reliable and valid; 2) evidence of reliability and validity of synthetic LLM personality is stronger for larger and instruction fine-tuned models; and 3) personality in LLM outputs can be shaped along desired dimensions to mimic specific human personality profiles. We discuss the application and ethical implications of the measurement and shaping method, in particular regarding responsible AI.

Key facts. Cited by 169 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 53 of its 183 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Jul 2023.

Builds on

53 of 183 references.

References · 53

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50 most cited of 53 All 53 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 22; 2024: 51; 2025: 52; 2026: 44.

169 papers.

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  1. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  2. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,439
  3. 2023A Survey on Evaluation of Large Language Modelscited by 1,242
  4. 2024LLMs Know More Than They Show: On the Intrinsic Representation of LLM Hallucinationscited by 244
  5. 2024From Persona to Personalization: A Survey on Role-Playing Language Agentscited by 212
  6. 2024The Landscape of Emerging AI Agent Architectures for Reasoning, Planning, and Tool Calling: A Surveycited by 168
  7. 2024A Comprehensive Study of Knowledge Editing for Large Language Modelscited by 163
  8. 2023Generative agent-based modeling with actions grounded in physical, social, or digital space using Concordiacited by 126
  9. 2023Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models: An Explanatory Analysis Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensionscited by 112
  10. 2023Levels of AGI for Operationalizing Progress on the Path to AGIcited by 96
  11. 2023Emotionally Numb or Empathetic? Evaluating How LLMs Feel Using EmotionBenchcited by 54
  12. 2023Do LLM Agents Exhibit Social Behavior?cited by 53
38 more
  1. 2025Values in the Wild: Discovering and Analyzing Values in Real-World Language Model Interactionscited by 52
  2. 2024Virtual Personas for Language Models via an Anthology of Backstoriescited by 51
  3. 2024BIG5-CHAT: Shaping LLM Personalities Through Training on Human-Grounded Datacited by 50
  4. 2024LLM Voting: Human Choices and AI Collective Decision Makingcited by 48
  5. 2023Personas as a Way to Model Truthfulness in Language Modelscited by 47
  6. 2023Digital Life Project: Autonomous 3D Characters with Social Intelligencecited by 43
  7. 2023Instruction-tuning Aligns LLMs to the Human Braincited by 40
  8. 2025LoRe: Personalizing LLMs via Low-Rank Reward Modelingcited by 38
  9. 2024Evaluating Cultural Adaptability of a Large Language Model via Simulation of Synthetic Personascited by 37
  10. 2024Agent-Oriented Planning in Multi-Agent Systemscited by 36
  11. 2025The Personality Illusion: Revealing Dissociation Between Self-Reports & Behavior in LLMscited by 36
  12. 2024Can Language Models Reason about Individualistic Human Values and Preferences?cited by 34
  13. 2023DialogBench: Evaluating LLMs as Human-like Dialogue Systemscited by 31
  14. 2024Divergent Creativity in Humans and Large Language Modelscited by 31
  15. 2024PICLe: Eliciting Diverse Behaviors from Large Language Models with Persona In-Context Learningcited by 29
  16. 2023Who is ChatGPT? Benchmarking LLMs' Psychological Portrayal Using PsychoBenchcited by 28
  17. 2024Large Language Models Show Human-like Social Desirability Biases in Survey Responsescited by 28
  18. 2024LLM-GLOBE: A Benchmark Evaluating the Cultural Values Embedded in LLM Outputcited by 27
  19. 2025Persistent Instability in LLM's Personality Measurements: Effects of Scale, Reasoning, and Conversation Historycited by 26
  20. 2023Challenging the Validity of Personality Tests for Large Language Modelscited by 25
  21. 2025Evaluating Personality Traits in Large Language Models: Insights from Psychological Questionnairescited by 25
  22. 2025On Benchmarking Human-Like Intelligence in Machinescited by 25
  23. 2023Editing Personality for Large Language Modelscited by 22
  24. 2024Evaluating Large Language Models with Psychometricscited by 22
  25. 2025The simulation of judgment in LLMscited by 22
  26. 2025AgentMisalignment: Measuring the Propensity for Misaligned Behaviour in LLM-Based Agentscited by 22
  27. 2024On the limits of agency in agent-based modelscited by 21
  28. 2024Fairness and Bias in Multimodal AI: A Surveycited by 20
  29. 2023An evolutionary model of personality traits related to cooperative behavior using a large language modelcited by 18
  30. 2024Psychometric Alignment: Capturing Human Knowledge Distributions via Language Modelscited by 18
  31. 2025Personality Vector: Modulating Personality of Large Language Models by Model Mergingcited by 17
  32. 2023On the Trustworthiness Landscape of State-of-the-art Generative Models: A Survey and Outlookcited by 15
  33. 2025MALLM: Multi-Agent Large Language Models Frameworkcited by 15
  34. 2024Stick to your Role! Stability of Personal Values Expressed in Large Language Modelscited by 14
  35. 2024Beyond Human Norms: Unveiling Unique Values of Large Language Models through Interdisciplinary Approachescited by 14
  36. 2024Do LLMs have Consistent Values?cited by 14
  37. 2024Identifying and Manipulating Personality Traits in LLMs Through Activation Engineeringcited by 14
  38. 2024The Effects of Embodiment and Personality Expression on Learning in LLM-based Educational Agentscited by 13

50 most cited of 169 All 169 (JSON)