arXiv AI By Shikha Mallick, Alex Thomo, Akrati Saxena

LLMs for Social Network Modeling: From Network Generation to Dynamic Processes

Read the original on arXiv AI →

The paper reviews how large language models (LLMs) are being used to model social networks, highlighting their ability to represent users, relationships, and interactions through natural language. It categorizes existing work into network generative models—split into selection‑based and interaction‑based approaches—and dynamic process models, which cover opinion dynamics, information diffusion, and rumor propagation. The survey also discusses the advantages of LLMs for realistic, context‑aware social behavior, while noting limitations such as social biases and prompt sensitivity, and outlines open research challenges and future directions.

Machine-generated by The Flow from the publisher's headline and feed description — not written or checked by a human. The full article lives at arXiv AI.

arXiv Computation and Language
Aug 27

Belief Cascades Drive Persuasion in LLM Agent Networks

The paper introduces a controlled testbed to study how goal‑directed persuaders shift stances in networks of large language model agents, using real‑world ego‑network topologies. Experiments across four LLM backbones, five graph structures, and 55 policy statements show that persuasion dynamics depend on topology, competition, topic, and model prior. The study finds that direct exposure predicts stance change, peer relays have measurable influence, and that post‑text analysis alone misses important movement, highlighting the need to evaluate multi‑agent persuasion through trajectory‑level processes, belief probes, exposure provenance, and action logs.

By Haoyi Qiu, Genglin Liu, Pranav Narayanan Venkit, Kung-Hsiang Huang, Saadia Gabriel, Chien-Sheng Wu, Nanyun Peng
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 18

Digital Twins for Opinion Dynamics: A Generative LLM Framework for Social Networks

The paper introduces a digital‑twin framework that simulates opinion dynamics in real Twitter networks by assigning agents attributes such as persona, emotions, centrality, stubbornness, and influence, and using Mistral‑7B to update opinions based on memory and social exposure. Validation on COVID‑19 and U.S. election 2020 datasets shows the framework reproduces opinion trajectories, reducing prediction error by over 50% compared to classical baselines, and improves structural alignment and polarization dynamics. Ablation studies reveal that agent attributes, memory, and social exposure all contribute to predictive fidelity, with agent attributes being the most critical.

By Omran Berjawi, Giuseppe Fenza, Rida Khatoun, Sherali Zeadally