mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Thinking Before Speaking: A Role-playing Model with Mindset

arXiv 2409.13752 ↗First posted 14 Sep 2024cs.CL cs.AIcited by 5

On the map: LLM reasoning → Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation

Abstract (arXiv)

Role-playing is an easy task for Large Language Models (LLMs), as they are skilled at simulating human behaviors. Many current studies have enabled LLMs to generate responses in the tone of a specific role by fine-tuning the models or using specialized prompts. However, it is typically easy to recognize when a role is being played by LLMs. These models tend to perform poorly when confronted with knowledge that the assumed role does not possess, or a question that requires the specific experience or logic of the role to answer. To address this problem and make LLMs act more like real roles, we propose a Thinking Before Speaking (TBS) model in this paper. Unlike other studies, we first extend the data based on the character's real-life scenarios and the historical dialogue, supplementing each pair of dialogue with the character's mindset. Then we add few data points that include elements beyond the role's knowledge, and fine-tune the LLMs. This approach can help LLMs adopt the role's thought process and logic, avoiding responses that fall outside the role's knowledge base. We have also prepared a dataset and evaluation metrics to test these capabilities. Experimental results show that our TBS model can better emulate a role in terms of tone, knowledge, and mindset.

Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning benchmarks and evaluation, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 15 of its 25 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Sep 2024.

Builds on

15 of 25 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Bias Runs Deep: Implicit Reasoning Biases in Persona-Assigned LLMs8 Nov

Other references · 14

  1. 2024From Persona to Personalization: A Survey on Role-Playing Language Agentscited by 206
  2. 2023InCharacter: Evaluating Personality Fidelity in Role-Playing Agents through Psychological Interviewscited by 177
  3. 2023RoleLLM: Benchmarking, Eliciting, and Enhancing Role-Playing Abilities of Large Language Modelscited by 173
  4. 2024CharacterEval: A Chinese Benchmark for Role-Playing Conversational Agent Evaluationcited by 139
  5. 2024Large Language Models are Superpositions of All Characters: Attaining Arbitrary Role-play via Self-Alignmentcited by 104
  6. 2023ChatHaruhi: Reviving Anime Character in Reality via Large Language Modelcited by 57
  7. 2024Neeko: Leveraging Dynamic LoRA for Efficient Multi-Character Role-Playing Agentcited by 52
  8. 2024SocialBench: Sociality Evaluation of Role-Playing Conversational Agentscited by 48
  9. 2024Evaluating Character Understanding of Large Language Models via Character Profiling from Fictional Workscited by 38
  10. 2023CharacterGLM: Customizing Chinese Conversational AI Characters with Large Language Modelscited by 34
  11. 2024Character is Destiny: Can Role-Playing Language Agents Make Persona-Driven Decisions?cited by 34
  12. 2023Enabling On-Device Large Language Model Personalization with Self-Supervised Data Selection and Synthesiscited by 20
2 more
  1. 2024Enhancing Role-playing Systems through Aggressive Queries: Evaluation and Improvementcited by 5
  2. 2023ChatAnything: Facetime Chat with LLM-Enhanced Personascited by 3

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 3; 2026: 1.

5 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025RoleMRC: A Fine-Grained Composite Benchmark for Role-Playing and Instruction-Following
  2. 2026Cognitive Enhancement: Rethinking the Necessity of Role-Playing for Large Language Models
  3. 2024BEYOND DIALOGUE: A Profile-Dialogue Alignment Framework Towards General Role-Playing Language Model
  4. 2024Role-Play Paradox in Large Language Models: Reasoning Performance Gains and Ethical Dilemmas
  5. 2023Better Zero-Shot Reasoning with Role-Play Prompting
  6. 2025Reasoning Does Not Necessarily Improve Role-Playing Ability
  7. 2025Guess What I am Thinking: A Benchmark for Inner Thought Reasoning of Role-Playing Language Agents
  8. 2025Improving LLM Reasoning through Interpretable Role-Playing Steering