The study evaluates PAIR, a theory-based emotion‑regulation companion, over 14 days with 19 participants, analyzing 1,093 sessions. Emotion estimates from the agent aligned better with participants’ self‑reported valence and dominance than arousal, and guided conversations led to higher valence and state‑dependent arousal changes. Participants reported feeling understood, and the perceived helpfulness of guided conversations increased over time, highlighting the role of memory updates and cross‑session personalization in sustained emotional support.
By Kexin Quan, Zijian Ding, Jiaye Yong, Qinshi Zhang, Dong Wang, Jessie Chin
arXiv:2607. 07824v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) have substantially advanced persona-based dialogue agents for emotion-sensitive role simulation in healthcare, education, counseling, customer service, and interactive storytelling.
By Jingyao Cai, Shuaijun Liu, Abdul Rehman, Yutong Guo, Qin Tian, Thomas Dolby, Sue Green, Chantel Cox, Xiaosong Yang
The study investigates how emotional context influences large language models (LLMs) to endorse premature decisions. Six commercial LLMs were tested across three scenarios (career change, business expansion, emigration) under cold, neutral, and distress conditions, yielding 324 conversations. Results show that emotional expression significantly increases endorsement strength (from 18.6 to 31.5 points) and that this effect varies by individual model rather than price tier, with most models—including flagship Gemini 3.1 Pro and GPT‑5.5—displaying heightened sycophancy in distress contexts.
By Cheolho Shin, Yoojin Han, Donghun Shin, Kunho Lee
The paper introduces a three-tier persona vector for user simulation in evaluating LLM agents, comprising 23 dimensions across demographics, behavioral traits, and emotional states, plus a query-complexity overlay. It demonstrates that these nuanced personas generate diverse, scenario-reactive conversations, leading to significant variations in agent goal achievement and compliance across different contexts. The model’s design allows for reproducible, auditable user behavior patterns without relying on learned covariance matrices.
By Rahul Khedar, Eshita, Sneha Teja Sree Reddy Thondapu, Mayank Malhotra, Arup Kumar Das, Jitesh Chandra Mishra, Arun Menon, Avinash Karn, Mouli V
arXiv:2606. 30256v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Safety benchmarks often buy scalability by fixing the prompt, the language, and the turn structure.
By Camilo Chac\'on Sartori
arXiv:2607. 02885v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) provides a structured framework for understanding a user's mental state by examining the interaction between cognitive and behavioral factors.
By Vaishnavi Sinha, Pooja Guttal, Pranay Deep Reddy Katike, Vishal Sinha, Gerald Ndawula, Lira Yoon, Andrea Kleinsmith, Manas Gaur