Do Large Language Models Learn Human-Like Strategic Preferences?

In this paper, we evaluate whether LLMs learn to make human-like preference judgements in strategic scenarios as compared with known empirical results.Solar and Mistral are shown to exhibit stable value-based preference consistent with humans and exhibit human-like preference for cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma (including stake-size effect) and traveler's dilemma (including penalty-size effect).We establish a relationship between model size, value-based preference, and superficiality.Finally, results here show that models tending to be less brittle have relied on sliding window attention suggesting a potential link.Additionally, we contribute a novel method for constructing preference relations from arbitrary LLMs and support for a hypothesis regarding human behavior in the traveler's dilemma.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.realm-1.8
Primary Topic
Language and cultural evolution
Type
article
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article

Do Large Language Models Learn Human-Like Strategic Preferences?

Jesse Roberts, Kyle Moore, Douglas Fisher
Language and cultural evolution
article

Do Large Language Models Learn Human-Like Strategic Preferences?

Jesse Roberts, Kyle Moore, Douglas Fisher
article en

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate whether LLMs learn to make human-like preference judgements in strategic scenarios as compared with known empirical results.Solar and Mistral are shown to exhibit stable value-based preference consistent with humans and exhibit human-like preference for cooperation in the prisoner's dilemma (including stake-size effect) and traveler's dilemma (including penalty-size effect).We establish a relationship between model size, value-based preference, and superficiality.Finally, results here show that models tending to be less brittle have relied on sliding window attention suggesting a potential link.Additionally, we contribute a novel method for constructing preference relations from arbitrary LLMs and support for a hypothesis regarding human behavior in the traveler's dilemma.

Openalex Percentile: Top 76%
Language and cultural evolution
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Do Large Language Models Learn Human-Like Strategic Preferences? — Jesse Roberts, Kyle Moore, et al. · (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS