Evaluating and Aligning Human Economic Risk Preferences in LLMs
On the map: LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation → Human values and AI feedback alignment
Abstract (arXiv)
Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly used in decision-making scenarios that involve risk assessment, yet their alignment with human economic rationality remains unclear. In this study, we investigate whether LLMs exhibit risk preferences consistent with human expectations across different personas. Specifically, we assess whether LLM-generated responses reflect appropriate levels of risk aversion or risk-seeking behavior based on individual's persona. Our results reveal that while LLMs make reasonable decisions in simplified, personalized risk contexts, their performance declines in more complex economic decision-making tasks. To address this, we propose an alignment method designed to enhance LLM adherence to persona-specific risk preferences. Our approach improves the economic rationality of LLMs in risk-related applications, offering a step toward more human-aligned AI decision-making.
Key facts. Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Human values and AI feedback alignment, one of 10 directions in LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation. Builds on 16 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Mar 2025.
Builds on
16 of 46 references.
Closest ancestors · 2
Same direction, newest first
- 2023Second Thoughts are Best: Learning to Re-Align With Human Values from Text Edits1 Jan
- 2022Discovering Language Model Behaviors with Model-Written Evaluations19 Dec
Other references · 14
- 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
- 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,971
- 2024The Llama 3 Herd of Modelscited by 14,715
- 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 8,065
- 2020Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understandingcited by 7,963
- 2023Qwen Technical Reportcited by 3,344
- 2024OLMo: Accelerating the Science of Language Modelscited by 613
- 2024Alignment faking in large language modelscited by 360
- 2023Principled Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedback from Pairwise or K-wise Comparisonscited by 247
- 2023Large Language Model Alignment: A Surveycited by 243
- 2023EconAgent: Large Language Model-Empowered Agents for Simulating Macroeconomic Activitiescited by 154
- 2023InvestLM: A Large Language Model for Investment using Financial Domain Instruction Tuningcited by 82
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 5.
8 papers.
- 2026Are LLM Decisions Faithful to Verbal Confidence?cited by 8
- 2025Rethinking Prospect Theory for LLMs: Revealing the Instability of Decision-Making under Epistemic Uncertaintycited by 4
- 2025MetaGraph: A Large-Scale Meta-Analysis of GenAI in Financial NLP (2022-2025)cited by 2
- 2026Auditing Asset-Specific Preferences in Financial Large Language Models: Evidence from Bitcoin Representations and Portfolio Allocationcited by 1
- 2026Out-of-Distribution Generalization of Risk Aversion in Language Modelscited by 1
- 2025Can Risk-taking AI-Assistants suitably represent entitiescited by 0
- 2026LLM Consumer Behavior Theory: Foundations of a Novel Research Fieldcited by 0
- 2026Behavioral History Outperforms Descriptions of the Person for LLM Synthetic Personascited by 0
- 2026Behavioral History Outperforms Descriptions of the Person for LLM Synthetic Personas2 Oct 2026
- 2026Out-of-Distribution Generalization of Risk Aversion in Language Models2 Jul 2026
- 2026LLM Consumer Behavior Theory: Foundations of a Novel Research Field16 Jun 2026
- 2026Auditing Asset-Specific Preferences in Financial Large Language Models: Evidence from Bitcoin Representations and Portfolio Allocation1 Jun 2026
- 2026Are LLM Decisions Faithful to Verbal Confidence?12 Jan 2026
- 2025Can Risk-taking AI-Assistants suitably represent entities9 Oct 2025
- 2025MetaGraph: A Large-Scale Meta-Analysis of GenAI in Financial NLP (2022-2025)11 Sep 2025
- 2025Rethinking Prospect Theory for LLMs: Revealing the Instability of Decision-Making under Epistemic Uncertainty12 Aug 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2024AI as Decision-Maker: Ethics and Risk Preferences of LLMs
- 2025Risk Profiling and Modulation for LLMs
- 2026Probing Outcome-Level Resemblance and Mechanism-Level Alignment in LLM Risk Decisions: Evidence from the St. Petersburg Game
- 2025Can Large Language Models Capture Human Risk Preferences? A Cross-Cultural Study
- 2025Bias-Adjusted LLM Agents for Human-Like Decision-Making via Behavioral Economics
- 2024Can LLMs Replace Economic Choice Prediction Labs? The Case of Language-based Persuasion Games
- 2026Do LLMs Choose Like Humans? Using Cognitive Theory to Evaluate LLM Decision-Making
- 2025Distributive Fairness in Large Language Models: Evaluating Alignment with Human Values