# Sentipolis: Emotion-Aware Agents for Social Simulations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.18027 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.18027/

## 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 26 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Jan 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 26 of 26)

- [Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.03300/) (2020)
- [HotpotQA: A Dataset for Diverse, Explainable Multi-hop Question Answering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.09600/) (2018)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Evaluating Very Long-Term Conversational Memory of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17753/) (2024)
- [DeepSeek-V3.2: Pushing the Frontier of Open Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02556/) (2025)
- [LLM Evaluators Recognize and Favor Their Own Generations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13076/) (2024)
- [SOTOPIA: Interactive Evaluation for Social Intelligence in Language Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11667/) (2023)
- [Memory in the Age of AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.13564/) (2025)
- [Self-Preference Bias in LLM-as-a-Judge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21819/) (2024)
- [AgentSociety: Large-Scale Simulation of LLM-Driven Generative Agents Advances Understanding of Human Behaviors and Society](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08691/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models Understand and Can be Enhanced by Emotional Stimuli](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.11760/) (2023)
- [Simulating Classroom Education with LLM-Empowered Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19226/) (2024)
- [LLM Social Simulations Are a Promising Research Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02234/) (2025)
- [LLM Generated Persona is a Promise with a Catch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16527/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models Assume People are More Rational than We Really are](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17055/) (2024)
- [AgentSense: Benchmarking Social Intelligence of Language Agents through Interactive Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.19346/) (2024)
- [Corrupted by Reasoning: Reasoning Language Models Become Free-Riders in Public Goods Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.23276/) (2025)
- [Synthetic Socratic Debates: Examining Persona Effects on Moral Decision and Persuasion Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12657/) (2025)
- [Can A Society of Generative Agents Simulate Human Behavior and Inform Public Health Policy? A Case Study on Vaccine Hesitancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09639/) (2025)
- [Hire Your Anthropologist! Rethinking Culture Benchmarks Through an Anthropological Lens](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05931/) (2025)
- [BookWorld: From Novels to Interactive Agent Societies for Creative Story Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14538/) (2025)
- [Humanizing Machines: Rethinking LLM Anthropomorphism Through a Multi-Level Framework of Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.17573/) (2025)
- [Embracing Contradiction: Theoretical Inconsistency Will Not Impede the Road of Building Responsible AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18139/) (2025)
- [Self-Emotion Blended Dialogue Generation in Social Simulation Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01633/) (2024)
- [Infusing Emotions into Task-oriented Dialogue Systems: Understanding, Management, and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.02417/) (2024)
- [An Explainable Emotion Alignment Framework for LLM-Empowered Agent in Metaverse Service Ecosystem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.22326/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [The Chameleon's Limit: Investigating Persona Collapse and Homogenization in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24698/) (2026)
- [From Triggers to Emotions: A CPM-Grounded Appraisal Multi-Agent for Dynamic Emotional Evolution in Persona-Based Dialogue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.07824/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

LLM agents are increasingly used for social simulation, yet emotion is often treated as a transient cue, causing emotional amnesia and weak long-horizon continuity. We present Sentipolis, a framework for emotionally stateful agents that integrates continuous Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) representation, dual-speed emotion dynamics, and emotion--memory coupling. Across thousands of interactions over multiple base models and evaluators, Sentipolis improves emotionally grounded behavior, boosting communication, and emotional continuity. Gains are model-dependent: believability increases for higher-capacity models but can drop for smaller ones, and emotion-awareness can mildly reduce adherence to social norms, reflecting a human-like tension between emotion-driven behavior and rule compliance in social simulation. Network-level diagnostics show reciprocal, moderately clustered, and temporally stable relationship structures, supporting the study of cumulative social dynamics such as alliance formation and gradual relationship change.