Multi-Agents are Social Groups: Investigating Social Influence of Multiple Agents in Human-Agent Interactions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Song, Tianqi, Tan, Yugin, Zhu, Zicheng, Feng, Yibin, Lee, Yi-Chieh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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_version_ 1866914053130027008
author Song, Tianqi
Tan, Yugin
Zhu, Zicheng
Feng, Yibin
Lee, Yi-Chieh
author_facet Song, Tianqi
Tan, Yugin
Zhu, Zicheng
Feng, Yibin
Lee, Yi-Chieh
contents Multi-agent systems - systems with multiple independent AI agents working together to achieve a common goal - are becoming increasingly prevalent in daily life. Drawing inspiration from the phenomenon of human group social influence, we investigate whether a group of AI agents can create social pressure on users to agree with them, potentially changing their stance on a topic. We conducted a study in which participants discussed social issues with either a single or multiple AI agents, and where the agents either agreed or disagreed with the user's stance on the topic. We found that conversing with multiple agents (holding conversation content constant) increased the social pressure felt by participants, and caused a greater shift in opinion towards the agents' stances on each topic. Our study shows the potential advantages of multi-agent systems over single-agent platforms in causing opinion change. We discuss design implications for possible multi-agent systems that promote social good, as well as the potential for malicious actors to use these systems to manipulate public opinion.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_04578
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-Agents are Social Groups: Investigating Social Influence of Multiple Agents in Human-Agent Interactions
Song, Tianqi
Tan, Yugin
Zhu, Zicheng
Feng, Yibin
Lee, Yi-Chieh
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
Multi-agent systems - systems with multiple independent AI agents working together to achieve a common goal - are becoming increasingly prevalent in daily life. Drawing inspiration from the phenomenon of human group social influence, we investigate whether a group of AI agents can create social pressure on users to agree with them, potentially changing their stance on a topic. We conducted a study in which participants discussed social issues with either a single or multiple AI agents, and where the agents either agreed or disagreed with the user's stance on the topic. We found that conversing with multiple agents (holding conversation content constant) increased the social pressure felt by participants, and caused a greater shift in opinion towards the agents' stances on each topic. Our study shows the potential advantages of multi-agent systems over single-agent platforms in causing opinion change. We discuss design implications for possible multi-agent systems that promote social good, as well as the potential for malicious actors to use these systems to manipulate public opinion.
title Multi-Agents are Social Groups: Investigating Social Influence of Multiple Agents in Human-Agent Interactions
topic Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.04578