mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Identifying Cooperative Personalities in Multi-agent Contexts through Personality Steering with Representation Engineering

arXiv 2503.12722 ↗First posted 17 Mar 2025cs.AI cs.CL cs.GTcited by 2

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Social simulation and multi-agent debate

Abstract (arXiv)

As Large Language Models (LLMs) gain autonomous capabilities, their coordination in multi-agent settings becomes increasingly important. However, they often struggle with cooperation, leading to suboptimal outcomes. Inspired by Axelrod's Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma (IPD) tournaments, we explore how personality traits influence LLM cooperation. Using representation engineering, we steer Big Five traits (e.g., Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) in LLMs and analyze their impact on IPD decision-making. Our results show that higher Agreeableness and Conscientiousness improve cooperation but increase susceptibility to exploitation, highlighting both the potential and limitations of personality-based steering for aligning AI agents.

Key facts. Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 8 of its 15 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2025.

Builds on

8 of 15 references.

References · 8

  1. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,242
  2. 2023Representation Engineering: A Top-Down Approach to AI Transparencycited by 1,336
  3. 2023PersonaLLM: Investigating the Ability of Large Language Models to Express Personality Traitscited by 234
  4. 2024Escalation Risks from Language Models in Military and Diplomatic Decision-Makingcited by 63
  5. 2023On the steerability of large language models toward data-driven personascited by 53
  6. 2023Welfare Diplomacy: Benchmarking Language Model Cooperationcited by 45
  7. 2024The Better Angels of Machine Personality: How Personality Relates to LLM Safetycited by 21
  8. 2023Towards the Scalable Evaluation of Cooperativeness in Language Modelscited by 12

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

  1. 2026Effects of personality steering on cooperative behavior in Large Language Model agentscited by 2
  2. 2026The Effects of Visual Priming on Cooperative Behavior in Vision-Language Modelscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025The Power of Personality: A Human Simulation Perspective to Investigate Large Language Model Agents
  2. 2026When Does Personality Composition Matter for Multi-Agent LLM Teams?
  3. 2026Structured Personality Control and Adaptation for LLM Agents
  4. 2026Not Birds of a Feather: Personality-Based Partner Selection in LLM Agents
  5. 2025When Trust Collides: Decoding Human-LLM Cooperation Dynamics through the Prisoner's Dilemma
  6. 2025Exploring Big Five Personality and AI Capability Effects in LLM-Simulated Negotiation Dialogues
  7. 2024Designing AI-Agents with Personalities: A Psychometric Approach
  8. 2025Personality-Driven Decision-Making in LLM-Based Autonomous Agents