Social Reasoning

Follow this topic Ask about this topic

Latest papers 37

7 papers in the last four weeks, up 75% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

All topics

Why LLM Agents Favor Their Group: Stakes, Observed Norms, and Reputation
Oct 7, 2026Yujiao ChenSocial Bias in Language Models Normative Conformity in Language Models
Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Primitive Labs
Reading the Room: Foundations, Design, and Challenges of Normative Competence in LLMs
Oct 7, 2026Andrea Wynn, Harsh Satija, Nathan Baek +3Normative Conformity in Language Models Social Reasoning
Nathan · Johns Hopkins University · Vector Institute
Playing social deduction games with reinforcement fine-tuned large language models
Oct 3, 2026Lingzhe Zhang, Yunpeng Zhai, Tong Jia +7RL for LLM Agents RL Fine-Tuning
Peking University, Beijing, China. · Alibaba Group, China. · University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States.
LongSocialBench: Do Long-Context LLMs Understand Online Discussion Threads?
Oct 2, 2026Xinyi Liu, Rinat Khaziev, Dilek Hakkani-Tür +1Social Reasoning Long-Context Language Model Evaluation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Semantic Code Lab
Reinforcement Learning with Comparative Evidence for Social Intelligence
Oct 2, 2026Keane Ong, Yuriel Ryan, Sabri Boughorbel +9Reinforcement Learning RL for Language Models
MIT · NUS · Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University +5
PRISM: Predictive Representation of Interaction Style and Motion for Social Robot Navigation
Sep 16, 2026Bo-Han Chen, Hiromu Taketsugu, Norimichi UkitaPedestrian Behavior Modeling Social Robot Navigation
National Chung Hsing University · Toyota Technological Institute
Verifiable Social Reasoning for LLM Assistants
Sep 15, 2026Amir Taubenfeld, Zorik Gekhman, Avigail Grinstein-Dabush +6Multi-Agent LLM Systems Theory of Mind
Google Research · Hebrew University · University of Cambridge
Autonomy, Social Norms, and Alignment: Towards a Developmental Framework for Autonomous Artificial Agents
Sep 10, 2026Marica Notte, Ludovica Marinucci, Vieri Giuliano SantucciAI Alignment AI Agent Governance
Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR) · Interdepartmental Center for Research Ethics and Integrity (CID Ethics)
SocialReasonBench: A Video-QA Benchmark for Social Reasoning with Counterfactual Narrative Videos
Aug 31, 2026Zheyu Huang, Zijing Shi, Haozhe Luo +4Video QA Multimodal Reasoning
AAII, University of Technology Sydney · Northeastern University · Fudan University +1
The Shape of Power: A Multilingual Framework for Social Power Reasoning in Dialogues
Aug 28, 2026Farah Atif, Sougata Saha, Monojit ChoudhurySocial Reasoning Cross-Cultural Language Model Evaluation
Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence
Assessing mentalization in humans and large language models
Aug 26, 2026Aamir Sohail, Xintong Zhong, Arkady Konovalov +2Social Reasoning Theory of Mind
Centre for Human Brain Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. · School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. · Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK. +3
From Passive Delegates to Strategic Negotiators: Reinforcing Social Reasoning in Small Language Models with SocialRL
Aug 13, 2026Wenyue Hua, Zachary Huang, Tyler Payne +3LLM Agent Training Social Reasoning
Microsoft Research, AI Frontiers
Social Gym and SPaRTan: Benchmarking and Improving LLM Social Reasoning via Multi-Agent Game Tournaments
Aug 10, 2026Keyu He, Xuhui Zhou, Maarten SapGame-Playing Agents LLM Agent Evaluation
Carnegie Mellon University
Using Theory of Mind to Arbitrate between Social and Non-social Learning
Jul 30, 2026Lance Ying, Ryan Truong, Joshua B. Tenenbaum +1Computational Cognitive Modeling Theory of Mind
1Harvard University · 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Beyond Sycophancy: Structured Resistance and Compliance in LLM Moral Reasoning
Jul 23, 2026Baihui Wang, Bernard KochLLM Sycophancy Moral Reasoning in Language Models
University of Chicago · 2Yale School of Management
Learning social norms enhances compatibility in dynamic human-AI coordination
Jul 8, 2026Yi Yang, Siyuan Liu, Xin Gao +4Multi-Agent Coordination Human-AI Interaction
School of Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China · State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Green Vehicle and Mobility, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China · State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China +2
Measurable Majorities Are Not Finitely Axiomatizable
Jun 24, 2026Lawrence S. Moss, Arthur Paul PedersenSocial Choice Theory Social Reasoning
(†) Dept. of Mathematics, Indiana University, Bloomington. · (‡) Dept. of Computer Science & the Intel Investigations Lab, the City College of New York; the Graduate Center & Remote Sensing Earth Systems Institute, the City University of New York.
PIVOTSBench: Evaluating Fine-Grained Interpersonal Relationship Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models
Jun 22, 2026Shuxiang Zhang, Yiting Yin, Wenxuan Song +2Multimodal Large Language Models Multimodal Reasoning
Sun Yat-sen University · University of Michigan · Tsinghua University
Capability Provenance in Language Models: A Case Study in Social Reasoning
Jun 17, 2026Glenn Matlin, Chandreyi Chakraborty, Saehee Eom +8Social Reasoning
Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computing · MATS Program
A Causal Model of Theory of Mind in Conflict for Artificial Intelligence
Jun 15, 2026Nikolos GurneyCognitive Modeling Theory of Mind
Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California 12015 Waterfront Drive, Playa Vista, CA 90094, USA
The Theory of Mind Utility: Formal Specification of a Mentalizing Mechanism
Jun 10, 2026Nikolos Gurney, Stacy MarsellaComputational Cognitive Modeling Theory of Mind
Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California California, United States of America · Khoury College of Computer Sciences, Northeastern University Massachusetts, United States of America
MODF-SIR: A Multi-agent Omni-modal Distilled Framework for Social Intelligence Reasoning
Jun 10, 2026Shang Ma, Jisheng Dang, Wencan Zhang +6Multi-Agent Reasoning Social Reasoning
School of information Science and Engineering, Lanzhou University, LanZhou, China · School of Computing, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119077 · School of Medical Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China +1
Building Social World Models with Large Language Models
Jun 9, 2026Haofei Yu, Yining Zhao, Guanyu Lin +1World Model Learning World Models
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Carnegie Mellon University
TruthSplit: Operationalizing Conditional Validity in Arguments Through Multi-Perspective Reasoning
Jun 8, 2026Benjamin Stieger, Maximilian Terberger, Thomas Huber +1Reasoning Diversity Computational Argumentation
University of St. Gallen
MINDGAMES: A Live Arena for Evaluating Social and Strategic Reasoning in Multi-Agent LLMs
May 28, 2026Kevin Wang, Anna Thöni, Benjamin Kempinski +50LLM Agent Evaluation Strategic Reasoning Risks in Language Models
Change My View? The Dynamics of Persuasion and Polarization in Online Discourse
May 8, 2026David Freeborn, Malihe Alikani, Anthony SiciliaBelief Revision Opinion Dynamics
SCRuB: Social Concept Reasoning under Rubric-Based Evaluation
May 7, 2026Jamelle Watson-Daniels, Himaghna Bhattacharjee, Skyler Wang +11LLM Evaluation Rubric-Based Evaluation
1Meta · 2McGill University · 3Handshake AI +1
ARIS: Agentic and Relationship Intelligence System for Social Robots
May 1, 2026Stavya Datta, Fucai Ke, Leimin Tian +1Agentic RAG Human-Robot Interaction
Monash University
What Did They Mean? How LLMs Resolve Ambiguous Social Situations across Perspectives and Roles
Apr 27, 2026Qiming Yuan, Linyi Han, Nam Ling +1LLM Uncertainty Estimation Social Reasoning
Santa Clara University, USA
MTT-Bench: Predicting Social Dominance in Mice via Multimodal Large Language Models
Apr 24, 2026Yunquan Chen, Haoyu ChenMultimodal Large Language Models Social Reasoning
Department of Communication Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden · CMVS, University of Oulu, Finland

Oct 7, 2026J/K move · Enter open · S save

Why LLM Agents Favor Their Group: Stakes, Observed Norms, and Reputation

Yujiao Chen

Massachusetts Institute of Technology · Primitive Labs

Social Bias in Language Models Normative Conformity in Language Models Social Reasoning Large Language Model-Based Social Simulation

Open paper AskPDF arXiv

Language-model agents favor their own group because they have watched their members favor each other. The group label alone does little once the decision has a cost; what drives favoritism is observed behavior, and an individual's own record can override it. We test this in small societies with arbitrary group labels, ten rounds of point sharing, and matched one-shot decisions across fifteen OpenAI models and three Claude models, about 4,400 societies and 3.3 million audited model calls. First, the large effect of a bare group label reported in earlier work appears only when giving others points costs the agent nothing; once the agent can keep points for itself, that effect collapses on every model that shows it. Second, under a stake, interaction history becomes the main source of favoritism: the history effect is statistically positive on 13 of 15 models, reaches about 3.5-8 points out of 10 on 11, grows with the number of rounds played, and extends to labeled strangers the agent has never met. Third, with scripted histories, favoritism falls to near zero under an egalitarian norm and reverses when the agent's own group is seen favoring the other side; stronger models side with an individual's record when it conflicts with the group. Group favoritism is thus conformity to observed group behavior, carried to strangers by the label and overridden by individual reputation. The same account predicts responses to betrayal, scandal, and a free offer to change group: public reprimand repairs betrayal better than apology or restitution, allocation punishment remains confined to the offending member, and a formed group cannot be bought but can, on weaker models, be invited away.