Work

Do LLM Agents Mirror Socio-Cognitive Effects in Power-Asymmetric Conversations?

Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Power differences shape human communication through well-documented socio-cognitive effects, including language coordination, pronoun usage, authority bias, and harmful compliance.We examine whether large language models (LLMs) exhibit similar behaviors when assigned high-or low-status personas.Using personas from diverse professions, we simulate multi-turn, power-asymmetric dialogues (e.g., principal-teacher, justice-lawyer) and measure (i) linguistic coordination, (ii) pronoun usage, (iii) persuasion success, and (iv) compliance with unsafe requests.Our results show that LLMs show key socio-cognitive effects of power, albeit with nuances and variability, linking simulated interactions to both desirable and unsafe behaviors.1
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7166880649
FWCI: 8.935
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Cited by: 1
Related to: 10