Evaluating Large Language Models with Psychometrics
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Abstract (arXiv)
Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in solving various tasks, progressively evolving into general-purpose assistants. The increasing integration of LLMs into society has sparked interest in whether they exhibit psychological patterns, and whether these patterns remain consistent across different contexts -- questions that could deepen the understanding of their behaviors. Inspired by psychometrics, this paper presents a {comprehensive benchmark for quantifying psychological constructs of LLMs}, encompassing psychological dimension identification, assessment dataset design, and assessment with results validation. Our work identifies five key psychological constructs -- personality, values, emotional intelligence, theory of mind, and self-efficacy -- assessed through a suite of 13 datasets featuring diverse scenarios and item types. We uncover significant discrepancies between LLMs' self-reported traits and their response patterns in real-world scenarios, revealing complexities in their behaviors. Our findings also show that some preference-based tests, originally designed for humans, could not solicit reliable responses from LLMs. This paper offers a thorough psychometric assessment of LLMs, providing insights into reliable evaluation and potential applications in AI and social sciences.
Key facts. Cited by 22 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 57 of its 145 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 25 Jun 2024.
Builds on
57 of 145 references.
References · 57
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Citing papers per year: 2024: 5; 2025: 13; 2026: 4.
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- 2026Machine Psychometrics: A Mathematical Psychology of Artificial Intelligence10 May 2026
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- 2025Applying Psychometrics to Large Language Model Simulated Populations: Recreating the HEXACO Personality Inventory Experiment with Generative Agents1 Aug 2025
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- 2024The creative psychometric item generator: a framework for item generation and validation using large language models30 Aug 2024
- 2024Self-Cognition in Large Language Models: An Exploratory Study1 Jul 2024
- 2026Fragile Thoughts: How Large Language Models Handle Chain-of-Thought Perturbationscited by 5
- 2025Do Language Models Think Consistently? A Study of Value Preferences Across Varying Response Lengthscited by 2
- 2025MM-OPERA: Benchmarking Open-ended Association Reasoning for Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 2
- 2026Fragile Thoughts: How Large Language Models Handle Chain-of-Thought Perturbations11 Feb 2026
- 2025MM-OPERA: Benchmarking Open-ended Association Reasoning for Large Vision-Language Models30 Oct 2025
- 2025Do Language Models Think Consistently? A Study of Value Preferences Across Varying Response Lengths3 Jun 2025
- 2026Evaluating Alignment of Behavioral Dispositions in LLMscited by 6
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- 2026Evaluating Alignment of Behavioral Dispositions in LLMs11 Feb 2026
- 2025Feedback Forensics: A Toolkit to Measure AI Personality30 Sep 2025
- 2024Justice or Prejudice? Quantifying Biases in LLM-as-a-Judgecited by 354
- 2025Adaptive Testing for LLM Evaluation: A Psychometric Alternative to Static Benchmarkscited by 25
- 2024Self-Cognition in Large Language Models: An Exploratory Studycited by 14
- 2025From Prompts to Constructs: A Dual-Validity Framework for Large Language Model Research in Psychologycited by 9
- 2024Reflection-Bench: Evaluating Epistemic Agency in Large Language Modelscited by 7
- 2026An LLM-Native Psychometric Instrument Reveals a Self-Report--Behavior Gap Across 25 Modelscited by 4
- 2025Quantifying Fairness in LLMs Beyond Tokens: A Semantic and Statistical Perspectivecited by 3
- 2025H2HTalk: Evaluating Large Language Models as Emotional Companioncited by 3
- 2024The creative psychometric item generator: a framework for item generation and validation using large language modelscited by 2
- 2024Quantifying Risk Propensities of Large Language Models: Ethical Focus and Bias Detection through Role-Playcited by 1
- 2025I'm Sorry Dave: How the old world of personnel security can inform the new world of AI insider riskcited by 1
- 2025Can Large Language Models Capture Human Risk Preferences? A Cross-Cultural Studycited by 1
12 most cited of 13 All 13 (JSON)
- 2026Machine Psychometrics: A Mathematical Psychology of Artificial Intelligence10 May 2026
- 2026An LLM-Native Psychometric Instrument Reveals a Self-Report--Behavior Gap Across 25 Models24 Apr 2026
- 2025Adaptive Testing for LLM Evaluation: A Psychometric Alternative to Static Benchmarks26 Oct 2025
- 2025H2HTalk: Evaluating Large Language Models as Emotional Companion4 Jul 2025
- 2025Can Large Language Models Capture Human Risk Preferences? A Cross-Cultural Study29 Jun 2025
- 2025Quantifying Fairness in LLMs Beyond Tokens: A Semantic and Statistical Perspective23 Jun 2025
- 2025From Prompts to Constructs: A Dual-Validity Framework for Large Language Model Research in Psychology20 Jun 2025
- 2025I'm Sorry Dave: How the old world of personnel security can inform the new world of AI insider risk26 Mar 2025
- 2024Quantifying Risk Propensities of Large Language Models: Ethical Focus and Bias Detection through Role-Play26 Oct 2024
- 2024Reflection-Bench: Evaluating Epistemic Agency in Large Language Models21 Oct 2024
- 2024Justice or Prejudice? Quantifying Biases in LLM-as-a-Judge3 Oct 2024
- 2024The creative psychometric item generator: a framework for item generation and validation using large language models30 Aug 2024
12 newest of 13 All 13 (JSON)