mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Can LLMs Generate Behaviors for Embodied Virtual Agents Based on Personality Traits?

arXiv 2508.21087 ↗First posted 27 Aug 2025cs.HCcited by 5

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

Abstract (arXiv)

This study proposes a framework that employs personality prompting with Large Language Models to generate verbal and nonverbal behaviors for virtual agents based on personality traits. Focusing on extraversion, we evaluated the system in two scenarios: negotiation and ice breaking, using both introverted and extroverted agents. In Experiment 1, we conducted agent to agent simulations and performed linguistic analysis and personality classification to assess whether the LLM generated language reflected the intended traits and whether the corresponding nonverbal behaviors varied by personality. In Experiment 2, we carried out a user study to evaluate whether these personality aligned behaviors were consistent with their intended traits and perceptible to human observers. Our results show that LLMs can generate verbal and nonverbal behaviors that align with personality traits, and that users are able to recognize these traits through the agents' behaviors. This work underscores the potential of LLMs in shaping personality aligned virtual agents.

Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 11 of its 67 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Aug 2025.

Builds on

11 of 67 references.

References · 11

  1. 2023A Survey on Multimodal Large Language Models for Autonomous Drivingcited by 288
  2. 2024The Revolution of Multimodal Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 134
  3. 2024A Comprehensive Review of Multimodal Large Language Models: Performance and Challenges Across Different Taskscited by 57
  4. 2024Do LLMs Have Distinct and Consistent Personality? TRAIT: Personality Testset designed for LLMs with Psychometricscited by 56
  5. 2020Personality Trait Detection Using Bagged SVM over BERT Word Embedding Ensemblescited by 20
  6. 2024Virtual Agents for Alcohol Use Counseling: Exploring LLM-Powered Motivational Interviewingcited by 17
  7. 2025KODIS: A Multicultural Dispute Resolution Dialogue Corpuscited by 9
  8. 2019An End-to-End Conversational Style Matching Agentcited by 7
  9. 2023Engaged and Affective Virtual Agents: Their Impact on Social Presence, Trustworthiness, and Decision-Making in the Group Discussioncited by 7
  10. 2024Empathic Grounding: Explorations using Multimodal Interaction and Large Language Models with Conversational Agentscited by 5
  11. 2025Large Language Models for Virtual Human Gesture Selectioncited by 4

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 5.

5 papers.

  1. 2026Personality Expression Across Contexts: Linguistic and Behavioral Variation in LLM Agentscited by 4
  2. 2026Can LLMs Truly Embody Human Personality? Analyzing AI and Human Behavior Alignment in Dispute Resolutioncited by 1
  3. 2026Towards Trust Calibration in Socially Interactive Agents: Investigating Gendered Multimodal Behaviors Generation with LLMscited by 0
  4. 2026LLM-Driven Personalities for Decision Making in Emergency Simulationscited by 0
  5. 2026LLM-Based Selection of Incongruent Verbal and Nonverbal Behavior for Virtual Humanscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Structured Personality Control and Adaptation for LLM Agents
  2. 2024Open Models, Closed Minds? On Agents Capabilities in Mimicking Human Personalities through Open Large Language Models
  3. 2024The influence of persona and conversational task on social interactions with a LLM-controlled embodied conversational agent
  4. 2026Do Personality-Tuned LLMs Make Better Social Agents?
  5. 2025Humanizing LLMs: A Survey of Psychological Measurements with Tools, Datasets, and Human-Agent Applications
  6. 2023PersonaLLM: Investigating the Ability of Large Language Models to Express Personality Traits
  7. 2024LLM Agents in Interaction: Measuring Personality Consistency and Linguistic Alignment in Interacting Populations of Large Language Models
  8. 2025Large Language Model Agent Personality and Response Appropriateness: Evaluation by Human Linguistic Experts, LLM-as-Judge, and Natural Language Processing Model