WOLF: Werewolf-based Observations for LLM Deception and Falsehoods
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Abstract (arXiv)
Deception is a fundamental challenge for multi-agent reasoning: effective systems must strategically conceal information while detecting misleading behavior in others. Yet most evaluations reduce deception to static classification, ignoring the interactive, adversarial, and longitudinal nature of real deceptive dynamics. Large language models (LLMs) can deceive convincingly but remain weak at detecting deception in peers. We present WOLF, a multi-agent social deduction benchmark based on Werewolf that enables separable measurement of deception production and detection. WOLF embeds role-grounded agents (Villager, Werewolf, Seer, Doctor) in a programmable LangGraph state machine with strict night-day cycles, debate turns, and majority voting. Every statement is a distinct analysis unit, with self-assessed honesty from speakers and peer-rated deceptiveness from others. Deception is categorized via a standardized taxonomy (omission, distortion, fabrication, misdirection), while suspicion scores are longitudinally smoothed to capture both immediate judgments and evolving trust dynamics. Structured logs preserve prompts, outputs, and state transitions for full reproducibility. Across 7,320 statements and 100 runs, Werewolves produce deceptive statements in 31% of turns, while peer detection achieves 71-73% precision with ~52% overall accuracy. Precision is higher for identifying Werewolves, though false positives occur against Villagers. Suspicion toward Werewolves rises from ~52% to over 60% across rounds, while suspicion toward Villagers and the Doctor stabilizes near 44-46%. This divergence shows that extended interaction improves recall against liars without compounding errors against truthful roles. WOLF moves deception evaluation beyond static datasets, offering a dynamic, controlled testbed for measuring deceptive and detective capacity in adversarial multi-agent interaction.
Key facts. Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 11 of its 18 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Dec 2025.
Builds on
11 of 18 references.
References · 11
- 2025Measuring AI Ability to Complete Long Software Taskscited by 156
- 2023Deception Abilities Emerged in Large Language Modelscited by 101
- 2025The MASK Benchmark: Disentangling Honesty From Accuracy in AI Systemscited by 72
- 2023Hoodwinked: Deception and Cooperation in a Text-Based Game for Language Modelscited by 47
- 2024Werewolf Arena: A Case Study in LLM Evaluation via Social Deductioncited by 45
- 2025The Traitors: Deception and Trust in Multi-Agent Language Model Simulationscited by 34
- 2024AMONGAGENTS: Evaluating Large Language Models in the Interactive Text-Based Social Deduction Gamecited by 28
- 2025Deception in LLMs: Self-Preservation and Autonomous Goals in Large Language Modelscited by 16
- 2025Beyond Static Responses: Multi-Agent LLM Systems as a New Paradigm for Social Science Researchcited by 10
- 2025Beyond Prompt-Induced Lies: Investigating LLM Deception on Benign Promptscited by 5
- 2024View From Above: A Framework for Evaluating Distribution Shifts in Model Behaviorcited by 2
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 13.
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- 2026One Model, All Roles: Multi-Turn, Multi-Agent Self-Play Reinforcement Learning for Conversational Social Intelligencecited by 7
- 2026Towards Generalist Game Players: An Investigation of Foundation Models in the Game Multiversecited by 3
- 2026The Horizon Gap: Planning, Memory, Execution, Training, and Evaluation for Long-Horizon LLM Agentscited by 1
- 2026Confident at the moment of action: belief miscalibration in LLM play under hidden informationcited by 1
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systemscited by 1
- 2026Multicultural Spyfall: Assessing LLMs through Dynamic Multilingual Social Deduction Gamecited by 0
- 2026Triadic Werewolf: A Jester Role for Multi-Hop Theory of Mind in LLMscited by 0
- 2026When Agents Lie: Premeditation, Persistence, and Exploitation in Repeated Gamescited by 0
- 2026Auditing Belief-Conditioned LLM Agents in Hidden-Information Social Deduction Gamescited by 0
- 2026Can Agents Deceive? Evaluating Reasoning and Deception in ParliamentBench using a Social Deduction Gamecited by 0
- 2026Do LLMs Trust the Accuser or the Accusation? Measuring Belief Shifts in Werewolfcited by 0
- 2026Replication Without Persistence in Hosted LLMs: Measurement Sensitivity in Action-Time Belief Evaluationcited by 0
1 more
- 2026Deception by Omission: Language Models Knowingly Hide Their Mistakes8 Oct 2026
- 2026Replication Without Persistence in Hosted LLMs: Measurement Sensitivity in Action-Time Belief Evaluation18 Sep 2026
- 2026Do LLMs Trust the Accuser or the Accusation? Measuring Belief Shifts in Werewolf11 Sep 2026
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systems1 Sep 2026
- 2026Confident at the moment of action: belief miscalibration in LLM play under hidden information25 Aug 2026
- 2026The Horizon Gap: Planning, Memory, Execution, Training, and Evaluation for Long-Horizon LLM Agents7 Aug 2026
- 2026Can Agents Deceive? Evaluating Reasoning and Deception in ParliamentBench using a Social Deduction Game30 Jul 2026
- 2026Auditing Belief-Conditioned LLM Agents in Hidden-Information Social Deduction Games12 Jul 2026
- 2026When Agents Lie: Premeditation, Persistence, and Exploitation in Repeated Games6 Jul 2026
- 2026Triadic Werewolf: A Jester Role for Multi-Hop Theory of Mind in LLMs26 Jun 2026
- 2026Towards Generalist Game Players: An Investigation of Foundation Models in the Game Multiverse11 May 2026
- 2026One Model, All Roles: Multi-Turn, Multi-Agent Self-Play Reinforcement Learning for Conversational Social Intelligence3 Feb 2026
- 2026Confident at the moment of action: belief miscalibration in LLM play under hidden informationcited by 1
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systemscited by 1
- 2026When Agents Lie: Premeditation, Persistence, and Exploitation in Repeated Gamescited by 0
- 2026Auditing Belief-Conditioned LLM Agents in Hidden-Information Social Deduction Gamescited by 0
- 2026Do LLMs Trust the Accuser or the Accusation? Measuring Belief Shifts in Werewolfcited by 0
- 2026Deception by Omission: Language Models Knowingly Hide Their Mistakescited by 0
- 2026Deception by Omission: Language Models Knowingly Hide Their Mistakes8 Oct 2026
- 2026Do LLMs Trust the Accuser or the Accusation? Measuring Belief Shifts in Werewolf11 Sep 2026
- 2026SoK: When Safe Agents Fail Together: The Security of Multi Agent LLM Systems1 Sep 2026
- 2026Confident at the moment of action: belief miscalibration in LLM play under hidden information25 Aug 2026
- 2026Auditing Belief-Conditioned LLM Agents in Hidden-Information Social Deduction Games12 Jul 2026
- 2026When Agents Lie: Premeditation, Persistence, and Exploitation in Repeated Games6 Jul 2026
- 2026One Model, All Roles: Multi-Turn, Multi-Agent Self-Play Reinforcement Learning for Conversational Social Intelligencecited by 7
- 2026Towards Generalist Game Players: An Investigation of Foundation Models in the Game Multiversecited by 3
- 2026Multicultural Spyfall: Assessing LLMs through Dynamic Multilingual Social Deduction Gamecited by 0
- 2026Triadic Werewolf: A Jester Role for Multi-Hop Theory of Mind in LLMscited by 0
- 2026Replication Without Persistence in Hosted LLMs: Measurement Sensitivity in Action-Time Belief Evaluationcited by 0
- 2026Replication Without Persistence in Hosted LLMs: Measurement Sensitivity in Action-Time Belief Evaluation18 Sep 2026
- 2026Triadic Werewolf: A Jester Role for Multi-Hop Theory of Mind in LLMs26 Jun 2026
- 2026Towards Generalist Game Players: An Investigation of Foundation Models in the Game Multiverse11 May 2026
- 2026One Model, All Roles: Multi-Turn, Multi-Agent Self-Play Reinforcement Learning for Conversational Social Intelligence3 Feb 2026
- 2026Multicultural Spyfall: Assessing LLMs through Dynamic Multilingual Social Deduction Game13 Jan 2026