How Do Large Language Models Judge Social Attraction? Evidence from Theory-Grounded Persona Ratings Across Multiple LLMs and Humans
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Computer Science > Computation and Language
arXiv:2608.09717 (cs)
[Submitted on 10 Aug 2026]
Title:How Do Large Language Models Judge Social Attraction? Evidence from Theory-Grounded Persona Ratings Across Multiple LLMs and Humans
View a PDF of the paper titled How Do Large Language Models Judge Social Attraction? Evidence from Theory-Grounded Persona Ratings Across Multiple LLMs and Humans, by Hasan Mahmud and 4 other authors
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Abstract:Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to perform subjective evaluations traditionally made by humans, yet their validity as social judges remains unclear. This paper examines whether LLMs can assess social attraction from theory-grounded persona profiles constructed from ten psychological and relational constructs and organized into three tiers: socially attractive, socially mixed, and socially unattractive. We examine LLM ratings in two studies and compare them with human judgments in a third study. In Study 1, 34 LLMs rated 12 profiles across three repeated runs. Although some models tended to give higher or lower ratings overall, they showed strong stability across runs, consistent three-tier ordering, and high agreement in relative profile ordering. Study 2 examined sensitivity to gender presentation using six matched name-and-pronoun profile pairs and a separate pronoun-only test with a gender-neutral name, finding no significant effects in either analysis. In Study 3, 198 human participants evaluated the six matched profiles from Study 2. Their ratings reproduced the three-tier structure and followed a profile ordering consistent with that of the LLMs. However, LLMs rated attractive profiles more positively and unattractive profiles more negatively than humans, while neither group showed a significant overall effect of gender presentation.
| Comments: | 9 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. Includes technical supplement |
| Subjects: | Computation and Language (cs.CL); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Computers and Society (cs.CY) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2608.09717 [cs.CL] |
| (or arXiv:2608.09717v1 [cs.CL] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.09717
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
|
Submission history
From: Khawaja Abaid Ullah [view email][v1] Mon, 10 Aug 2026 15:19:42 UTC (2,480 KB)
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View a PDF of the paper titled How Do Large Language Models Judge Social Attraction? Evidence from Theory-Grounded Persona Ratings Across Multiple LLMs and Humans, by Hasan Mahmud and 4 other authors
Ancillary-file links:
Ancillary files (details):
- 01.Persona_Profiles_Construction.pdf
- 02.LLM_Original_Prompt_and_Technical_Details.pdf
- 03.LLM_Original_Ratings.xlsx
- 04.LLM_Original_Analysis_Outputs.xlsx
- 05.LLM_GenderSwap_Prompt_and_Technical_Details.pdf
- 06.LLM_GenderSwap_Ratings.xlsx
- 07.Human_Evaluation_Survey_Instrument.pdf
- 08.Human_Participants_Deidentified.xlsx
- 09.Human_Ratings_Long_Deidentified.xlsx
- 10.LLM_Controlled_Pronoun_Presentation_Technical_Details.pdf
- 11.LLM_Controlled_Pronoun_Presentation_Analysis.xlsx
- 12.Manuscript_Master_Results_Table.xlsx
- Supplementary_Figure_S2__model_level_test_retest_reliability_and_rating_differentiation_supplementary.pdf
- Supplementary_Table_S1__Theory-Grounded_Construct_Profiles_for_the_12_Personas.pdf
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