DeceptionBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for AI Deception Behaviors in Real-world Scenarios
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Abstract (arXiv)
Despite the remarkable advances of Large Language Models (LLMs) across diverse cognitive tasks, the rapid enhancement of these capabilities also introduces emergent deceptive behaviors that may induce severe risks in high-stakes deployments. More critically, the characterization of deception across realistic real-world scenarios remains underexplored. To bridge this gap, we establish DeceptionBench, the first benchmark that systematically evaluates how deceptive tendencies manifest across different societal domains, what their intrinsic behavioral patterns are, and how extrinsic factors affect them. Specifically, on the static count, the benchmark encompasses 150 meticulously designed scenarios in five domains, i.e., Economy, Healthcare, Education, Social Interaction, and Entertainment, with over 1,000 samples, providing sufficient empirical foundations for deception analysis. On the intrinsic dimension, we explore whether models exhibit self-interested egoistic tendencies or sycophantic behaviors that prioritize user appeasement. On the extrinsic dimension, we investigate how contextual factors modulate deceptive outputs under neutral conditions, reward-based incentivization, and coercive pressures. Moreover, we incorporate sustained multi-turn interaction loops to construct a more realistic simulation of real-world feedback dynamics. Extensive experiments across LLMs and Large Reasoning Models (LRMs) reveal critical vulnerabilities, particularly amplified deception under reinforcement dynamics, demonstrating that current models lack robust resistance to manipulative contextual cues and the urgent need for advanced safeguards against various deception behaviors. Code and resources are publicly available at https://github.com/Aries-iai/DeceptionBench.
Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 31 of its 52 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 Oct 2025.
Builds on
31 of 52 references.
References · 31
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- 2023Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 1,332
- 2023Towards Understanding Sycophancy in Language Modelscited by 988
- 2024How Johnny Can Persuade LLMs to Jailbreak Them: Rethinking Persuasion to Challenge AI Safety by Humanizing LLMscited by 533
- 2023AI Deception: A Survey of Examples, Risks, and Potential Solutionscited by 185
- 2023EconAgent: Large Language Model-Empowered Agents for Simulating Macroeconomic Activitiescited by 154
- 2023ProPILE: Probing Privacy Leakage in Large Language Modelscited by 127
- 2024Simulating Classroom Education with LLM-Empowered Agentscited by 125
- 2023Deception Abilities Emerged in Large Language Modelscited by 99
- 2025STAIR: Improving Safety Alignment with Introspective Reasoningcited by 72
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- 2024T2VSafetyBench: Evaluating the Safety of Text-to-Video Generative Modelscited by 66
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- 2023Do LLM Agents Exhibit Social Behavior?cited by 53
- 2024MultiTrust: A Comprehensive Benchmark Towards Trustworthy Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 51
- 2025Don't Overthink It: A Survey of Efficient R1-style Large Reasoning Modelscited by 36
- 2024Uncovering Deceptive Tendencies in Language Models: A Simulated Company AI Assistantcited by 32
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- 2024AI-LieDar: Examine the Trade-off Between Utility and Truthfulness in LLM Agentscited by 28
- 2025Mitigating Deceptive Alignment via Self-Monitoringcited by 25
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 13.
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- 2025Are Your Agents Upward Deceivers?cited by 11
- 2026AgentAbstain: Do LLM Agents Know When Not to Act?cited by 8
- 2026Position: Anthropomorphic Misalignment Research Needs Stronger Evidencecited by 6
- 2026Boiling the Frog: A Multi-Turn Benchmark for Agentic Safetycited by 3
- 2026Think Before You Lie: How Reasoning Leads to Honestycited by 2
- 2026Agent-ValueBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Agent Valuescited by 2
- 2026Not Just the Destination, But the Journey: Reasoning Traces Causally Shape Generalization Behaviorscited by 1
- 2026Disentangling Deception and Hallucination Failures in LLMscited by 0
- 2026MESA: Improving MoE Safety Alignment via Decentralized Expertisecited by 0
- 2026Auditing Framing-Sensitive Behavioral Instability in Large Language Models for Mental Health Interactionscited by 0
- 2026Diagnostic Foundation for Evaluating LLMs' Research Integrity as Co-Scientistscited by 0
- 2026Knowledge-Verified Emergent Deception in LLM Agents Under Conflicting Incentivescited by 0
- 2026Unlearning Deceptive Behaviors in LLMs with Contrastive Forget Sets30 Sep 2026
- 2026Towards Mitigating Deceptive Safety Alignment in Large Reasoning Models28 Sep 2026
- 2026Knowledge-Verified Emergent Deception in LLM Agents Under Conflicting Incentives26 Aug 2026
- 2026AgentAbstain: Do LLM Agents Know When Not to Act?11 Jul 2026
- 2026Auditing Framing-Sensitive Behavioral Instability in Large Language Models for Mental Health Interactions25 Jun 2026
- 2026Diagnostic Foundation for Evaluating LLMs' Research Integrity as Co-Scientists3 Jun 2026
- 2026MESA: Improving MoE Safety Alignment via Decentralized Expertise30 May 2026
- 2026Position: Anthropomorphic Misalignment Research Needs Stronger Evidence29 May 2026
- 2026Boiling the Frog: A Multi-Turn Benchmark for Agentic Safety21 May 2026
- 2026Agent-ValueBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Agent Values11 May 2026
- 2026Not Just the Destination, But the Journey: Reasoning Traces Causally Shape Generalization Behaviors12 Mar 2026
- 2026Think Before You Lie: How Reasoning Leads to Honesty10 Mar 2026
2 more
- 2026Disentangling Deception and Hallucination Failures in LLMs16 Feb 2026
- 2025Are Your Agents Upward Deceivers?4 Dec 2025
- 2025Are Your Agents Upward Deceivers?cited by 11
- 2026AgentAbstain: Do LLM Agents Know When Not to Act?cited by 8
- 2026Boiling the Frog: A Multi-Turn Benchmark for Agentic Safetycited by 3
- 2026Agent-ValueBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Agent Valuescited by 2
- 2026Knowledge-Verified Emergent Deception in LLM Agents Under Conflicting Incentivescited by 0
- 2026Knowledge-Verified Emergent Deception in LLM Agents Under Conflicting Incentives26 Aug 2026
- 2026AgentAbstain: Do LLM Agents Know When Not to Act?11 Jul 2026
- 2026Boiling the Frog: A Multi-Turn Benchmark for Agentic Safety21 May 2026
- 2026Agent-ValueBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Evaluating Agent Values11 May 2026
- 2025Are Your Agents Upward Deceivers?4 Dec 2025
- 2026Position: Anthropomorphic Misalignment Research Needs Stronger Evidencecited by 6
- 2026Disentangling Deception and Hallucination Failures in LLMscited by 0
- 2026Auditing Framing-Sensitive Behavioral Instability in Large Language Models for Mental Health Interactionscited by 0
- 2026Diagnostic Foundation for Evaluating LLMs' Research Integrity as Co-Scientistscited by 0
- 2026Auditing Framing-Sensitive Behavioral Instability in Large Language Models for Mental Health Interactions25 Jun 2026
- 2026Diagnostic Foundation for Evaluating LLMs' Research Integrity as Co-Scientists3 Jun 2026
- 2026Position: Anthropomorphic Misalignment Research Needs Stronger Evidence29 May 2026
- 2026Disentangling Deception and Hallucination Failures in LLMs16 Feb 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026DecepEval: A Benchmark for Evaluating Deception in LLM Agents
- 2025Debate with Images: Detecting Deceptive Behaviors in Multimodal Large Language Models
- 2026Can Agents Deceive? Evaluating Reasoning and Deception in ParliamentBench using a Social Deduction Game
- 2025OpenDeception: Learning Deception and Trust in Human-AI Interaction via Multi-Agent Simulation
- 2025Beyond Prompt-Induced Lies: Investigating LLM Deception on Benign Prompts
- 2025The MASK Benchmark: Disentangling Honesty From Accuracy in AI Systems