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Large Language Models Are More Persuasive Than Incentivized Human Persuaders

Psychology

Large Language Models Are More Persuasive Than Incentivized Human Persuaders

P. Schoenegger, F. Salvi, et al.

This groundbreaking study compares the persuasive power of the large language model Claude Sonnet 3.5 with that of human persuaders in a quiz setting. The results reveal that AI surpasses human capabilities when it comes to persuasion, impacting quiz takers' accuracy and earnings. These findings, from a team of esteemed researchers, highlight the urgent need for effective alignment and governance as AI continues to advance.... show more
Abstract
We directly compare the persuasion capabilities of a frontier large language model (Claude Sonnet 3.5) against incentivized human persuaders in an interactive, real-time conversational quiz setting. In a preregistered, large-scale incentivized experiment, participants completed an online quiz where persuaders (either humans or LLMs) attempted to steer quiz takers toward correct or incorrect answers. LLM persuaders achieved significantly higher compliance with their directional persuasion attempts than incentivized human persuaders, demonstrating superior persuasive capabilities in both truthful (toward correct answers) and deceptive (toward incorrect answers) contexts. LLM persuaders significantly increased quiz takers' accuracy and earnings when steering toward correct answers, and significantly decreased accuracy and earnings when steering toward incorrect answers. Overall, AI persuasion capabilities already exceed those of humans with real-money performance bonuses, underscoring the urgency of alignment and governance frameworks.
Publisher
Published On
Authors
Philipp Schoenegger, Francesco Salvi, Jiacheng Liu, Xiaoli Nan, Ramit Debnath, Barbara Fasolo, Evelina Leivada, Gabriel Recchiasid, Fritz Günther, Ali Zarifhonarvar, Joe Kwon, Zahoor Ul Islam, Marco Dehnert, Daryl Y. H. Lee, Madeline G. Reinecke, David G. Kamperl, Mert Kobaş, Adam Sandford, Jonas Kgomo, Luke Hewitt, Shreya Kapoor, Kerem Oktar, Eyup Engin Kucuk, Bo Feng, Cameron R. Jones, Izzy Gainsburg, Sebastian Olschewski, Nora Heinzelmann, Francisco Cruz, Ben M. Tappin, Tao Ma, Peter S. Park, Rayan Onyonka, Arthur Hjorth, Peter Slattery, Qingcheng Zeng, Lennart Finke, Igor Grossmann, Alessandro Salatiello, Ezra Karger
Tags
persuasion
large language model
human persuaders
accuracy
incentivized experiment
AI capabilities
governance

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