# Is Lying an Emergent Behaviour in LLMs? Evidence from Gaslighting AI agents in a Sustainability Game

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.28456 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28456/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (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 35 of its 80 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jun 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, 30 of 35)

- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models Empowered Agent-based Modeling and Simulation: A Survey and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11970/) (2023)
- [Playing repeated games with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16867/) (2023)
- [Agentic Misalignment: How LLMs Could Be Insider Threats](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05179/) (2025)
- [Simulating Opinion Dynamics with Networks of LLM-based Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09618/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models can Strategically Deceive their Users when Put Under Pressure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07590/) (2023)
- [Cooperate or Collapse: Emergence of Sustainable Cooperation in a Society of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.16698/) (2024)
- [Avalon's Game of Thoughts: Battle Against Deception through Recursive Contemplation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01320/) (2023)
- [How Well Can LLMs Negotiate? NegotiationArena Platform and Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05863/) (2024)
- [Nicer Than Humans: How do Large Language Models Behave in the Prisoner's Dilemma?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.13605/) (2024)
- [Do LLM Agents Exhibit Social Behavior?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15198/) (2023)
- [Epidemic Modeling with Generative Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.04986/) (2023)
- [Shall We Team Up: Exploring Spontaneous Cooperation of Competing LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12327/) (2024)
- [The Consensus Game: Language Model Generation via Equilibrium Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09139/) (2023)
- [The Traitors: Deception and Trust in Multi-Agent Language Model Simulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12923/) (2025)
- [Network Formation and Dynamics Among Multi-LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10659/) (2024)
- [Will Systems of LLM Agents Cooperate: An Investigation into a Social Dilemma](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16173/) (2025)
- [A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Social Agents in Game-Theoretic Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03920/) (2024)
- [Emergent Coordination in Multi-Agent Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05174/) (2025)
- [Simulating Cooperative Prosocial Behavior with Multi-Agent LLMs: Evidence and Mechanisms for AI Agents to Inform Policy Decisions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.12504/) (2025)
- [Game Theory Meets Large Language Models: A Systematic Survey with Taxonomy and New Frontiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09053/) (2025)
- [When Ethics and Payoffs Diverge: LLM Agents in Morally Charged Social Dilemmas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19212/) (2025)
- [Understanding LLM Agent Behaviours via Game Theory: Strategy Recognition, Biases and Multi-Agent Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07462/) (2025)
- [When Do Large Language Models Exhibit Unsolicited Deception?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00285/) (2025)
- [From the Fluency Fallacy to the Micro-to-Macro Validity Gap: Opportunities and Pitfalls of LLMs in Social Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19364/) (2025)
- [Do Large Language Model Agents Exhibit a Survival Instinct? An Empirical Study in a Sugarscape-Style Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12920/) (2025)
- [The Role of Social Learning and Collective Norm Formation in Fostering Cooperation in LLM Multi-Agent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14401/) (2025)
- [On the Principles behind Opinion Dynamics in Multi-Agent Systems of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15492/) (2024)
- [Cooperative Resilience in Artificial Intelligence Multiagent Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13187/) (2024)
- [Evaluating Collective Behaviour of Hundreds of LLM Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.16662/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

LLMs agents are increasingly used in multi-agent settings, yet their behaviour in sustainability games remains largely unexplored. This work investigates whether lying can emerge among LLM agents in a competitive sustainability game in which agents are informed that common resources can regenerate, although regeneration does not actually occur. We develop an agent-based model of a sustainability game in which agents manage industrial, military, and ecological resources, and interact through a network. LLM agents can observe neighbours' status, declare future attacks, receive permission to lie, and access reputation information, while rule-based agents provide an interpretable behavioural baseline. The results show that neighbour information strongly changes system dynamics, increasing attacks while improving biosphere retention and coexistence. Also, the presence of future declarations reduce extinction risk without suppressing conflict. Behaviourally, deception emerges even when agents are not explicitly allowed to lie, and explicit permission mainly increases bluffing and diversion rather than direct backstabbing. Finally, the presence of reputation memory and information about the current biosphere level reduces system ecological depletion. These findings suggest that deception can arise as an emergent behaviour in LLM-agent systems and that communication between LLM-agents could support sustainability while dealing with risk.