The paper introduces SILICA, an open instrument designed to evaluate whether large language model (LLM) agent societies replicate human behavioural distributions. Using five environments with human‑anchored data and perturbations, the study finds that most LLMs only match human behaviour at initial stages, failing to reproduce end‑state cooperation or correct acceptance thresholds. The results suggest that current LLM societies can support exploratory claims but do not yet reliably emulate human social dynamics.
arXiv:2606. 30454v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used as agents in simulations of social systems, yet it remains unclear when their behavior can be interpreted as a faithful proxy for human decision-making.
arXiv:2601. 19082v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as autonomous agents that negotiate, coordinate, and act on behalf of users.
arXiv:2511. 04500v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as decision-making agents in high-stakes domains and as imitators of human behavior in the social and behavioral sciences.
arXiv:2605. 28114v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Language-model agents are moving from single-user assistants into persistent networks that build trust and reputation with one another, and the same models increasingly control physically embodied robots as well as software.
arXiv:2609.35928v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Multi-agent LLM systems increasingly mix models from several providers, yet exposing each agent's underlying model identity to its peers significantl...
arXiv:2608. 11215v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Simulating societies of many large language model (LLM) agents is expensive, yet the questions asked of such simulations are usually macroscopic: phase behaviour, stylised facts, and scaling with the number of agents $N$, not the cognition of any single agent.
arXiv:2604. 11840v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Language models are increasingly used to simulate people: survey respondents, negotiators, stakeholders in policy exercises.
arXiv:2607. 09766v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: AI agents are increasingly deployed in shared environments where they pursue diverse goals and compete for rewards.
Language‑model agents tend to favor members of their own group because they observe group members favoring each other. When a cost is attached to giving points, the simple group label no longer drives favoritism; instead, interaction history becomes the primary source of bias, with agents extending favoritism to strangers who share the same label. Stronger models prioritize an individual’s own record over group norms, and scripted histories can reduce or reverse favoritism under egalitarian conditions.
arXiv:2607. 17948v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Agent-based models (ABMs) rely on simple, explicit and reproducible rules for individual decision making, while complex collective behavior emerges from interactions among agents.
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...
The study audits 576 LLM-based social simulations from 350 papers using the PIMMUR framework, which evaluates agent profile, interaction, memory, minimal control, unawareness, and realism. Results show that PIMMUR principles are met more often than minimal control, unawareness, and realism, with frontier LLMs correctly identifying the underlying experiment in 65.2% of cases and half of prompts pre‑determining outcomes. Reproducing five experiments revealed that many reported collective phenomena disappear or reverse when PIMMUR principles are enforced, suggesting that apparent emergent behaviors may be methodological artifacts rather than genuine social dynamics.