# Helmsman of the Masses? Evaluate the Opinion Leadership of Large Language Models in the Werewolf Game

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.01602 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01602/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 31 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Apr 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09685/) (2021)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Self-Instruct: Aligning Language Models with Self-Generated Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.10560/) (2022)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [MetaGPT: Meta Programming for A Multi-Agent Collaborative Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00352/) (2023)
- [GLM-130B: An Open Bilingual Pre-trained Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.02414/) (2022)
- [ChatEval: Towards Better LLM-based Evaluators through Multi-Agent Debate](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07201/) (2023)
- [Yi: Open Foundation Models by 01.AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.04652/) (2024)
- [Baichuan 2: Open Large-scale Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10305/) (2023)
- [AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10848/) (2023)
- [Describe, Explain, Plan and Select: Interactive Planning with Large Language Models Enables Open-World Multi-Task Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01560/) (2023)
- [Multi-Agent Collaboration: Harnessing the Power of Intelligent LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03314/) (2023)
- [Ghost in the Minecraft: Generally Capable Agents for Open-World Environments via Large Language Models with Text-based Knowledge and Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17144/) (2023)
- [Can Large Language Models Transform Computational Social Science?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.03514/) (2023)
- [Exploring Large Language Models for Communication Games: An Empirical Study on Werewolf](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.04658/) (2023)
- [Exploring Collaboration Mechanisms for LLM Agents: A Social Psychology View](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02124/) (2023)
- [Clever Hans or Neural Theory of Mind? Stress Testing Social Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14763/) (2023)
- [Language Agents with Reinforcement Learning for Strategic Play in the Werewolf Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.18940/) (2023)
- [Avalon's Game of Thoughts: Battle Against Deception through Recursive Contemplation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01320/) (2023)
- [Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Evaluating Strategic Planning and Execution of LLM Agents in an Auction Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.05746/) (2023)
- [Receive, Reason, and React: Drive as You Say with Large Language Models in Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08034/) (2023)
- [Can Large Language Model Agents Simulate Human Trust Behavior?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.04559/) (2024)
- [LLM-Based Agent Society Investigation: Collaboration and Confrontation in Avalon Gameplay](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14985/) (2023)
- [Enhance Reasoning for Large Language Models in the Game Werewolf](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02330/) (2024)
- [Does GPT-4 pass the Turing test?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.20216/) (2023)
- [Are ChatGPT and GPT-4 Good Poker Players? -- A Pre-Flop Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.12466/) (2023)
- [Academically intelligent LLMs are not necessarily socially intelligent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06591/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01990/) (2025)
- [From Individual to Society: A Survey on Social Simulation Driven by Large Language Model-based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03563/) (2024)
- [Reinforce LLM Reasoning through Multi-Agent Reflection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08379/) (2025)
- [Multi-agent KTO: Reinforcing Strategic Interactions of Large Language Model in Language Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.14225/) (2025)
- [Beyond Survival: Evaluating LLMs in Social Deduction Games with Human-Aligned Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11389/) (2025)
- [The Five Ws of Multi-Agent Communication: Who Talks to Whom, When, What, and Why -- A Survey from MARL to Emergent Language and LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11583/) (2026)
- [Deceive, Detect, and Disclose: Large Language Models Play Mini-Mafia](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.23023/) (2025)
- [Shall We Play a Game? Language Models for Open-ended Wargames](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17192/) (2025)
- [Evaluating Large Language Models in a Complex Hidden Role Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22826/) (2026)
- [WereWolf-Plus: An Update of Werewolf Game setting Based on DSGBench](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12841/) (2025)
- [Exploring a New Competency Modeling Process with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.13084/) (2026)
- [Even More Deception: Objective Misalignment in Mixed-Motive LLM Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26120/) (2026)
- [Can Agents Deceive? Evaluating Reasoning and Deception in ParliamentBench using a Social Deduction Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28146/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) have exhibited memorable strategic behaviors in social deductive games. However, the significance of opinion leadership exhibited by LLM-based agents has been largely overlooked, which is crucial for practical applications in multi-agent and human-AI interaction settings. Opinion leaders are individuals who have a noticeable impact on the beliefs and behaviors of others within a social group. In this work, we employ the Werewolf game as a simulation platform to assess the opinion leadership of LLMs. The game includes the role of the Sheriff, tasked with summarizing arguments and recommending decision options, and therefore serves as a credible proxy for an opinion leader. We develop a framework integrating the Sheriff role and devise two novel metrics based on the critical characteristics of opinion leaders. The first metric measures the reliability of the opinion leader, and the second assesses the influence of the opinion leader on other players' decisions. We conduct extensive experiments to evaluate LLMs of different scales. In addition, we collect a Werewolf question-answering dataset (WWQA) to assess and enhance LLM's grasp of the game rules, and we also incorporate human participants for further analysis. The results suggest that the Werewolf game is a suitable test bed to evaluate the opinion leadership of LLMs, and few LLMs possess the capacity for opinion leadership.