Can LLM "Self-report"?: Evaluating the Validity of Self-report Scales in Measuring Personality Design in LLM-based Chatbots

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zou, Huiqi, Wang, Pengda, Yan, Zihan, Sun, Tianjun, Xiao, Ziang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915433999761408
author Zou, Huiqi
Wang, Pengda
Yan, Zihan
Sun, Tianjun
Xiao, Ziang
author_facet Zou, Huiqi
Wang, Pengda
Yan, Zihan
Sun, Tianjun
Xiao, Ziang
contents A chatbot's personality design is key to interaction quality. As chatbots evolved from rule-based systems to those powered by large language models (LLMs), evaluating the effectiveness of their personality design has become increasingly complex, particularly due to the open-ended nature of interactions. A recent and widely adopted method for assessing the personality design of LLM-based chatbots is the use of self-report questionnaires. These questionnaires, often borrowed from established human personality inventories, ask the chatbot to rate itself on various personality traits. Can LLM-based chatbots meaningfully "self-report" their personality? We created 500 chatbots with distinct personality designs and evaluated the validity of their self-report personality scores by examining human perceptions formed during interactions with these chatbots. Our findings indicate that the chatbot's answers on human personality scales exhibit weak correlations with both human-perceived personality traits and the overall interaction quality. These findings raise concerns about both the criterion validity and the predictive validity of self-report methods in this context. Further analysis revealed the role of task context and interaction in the chatbot's personality design assessment. We further discuss design implications for creating more contextualized and interactive evaluation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_00207
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can LLM "Self-report"?: Evaluating the Validity of Self-report Scales in Measuring Personality Design in LLM-based Chatbots
Zou, Huiqi
Wang, Pengda
Yan, Zihan
Sun, Tianjun
Xiao, Ziang
Human-Computer Interaction
A chatbot's personality design is key to interaction quality. As chatbots evolved from rule-based systems to those powered by large language models (LLMs), evaluating the effectiveness of their personality design has become increasingly complex, particularly due to the open-ended nature of interactions. A recent and widely adopted method for assessing the personality design of LLM-based chatbots is the use of self-report questionnaires. These questionnaires, often borrowed from established human personality inventories, ask the chatbot to rate itself on various personality traits. Can LLM-based chatbots meaningfully "self-report" their personality? We created 500 chatbots with distinct personality designs and evaluated the validity of their self-report personality scores by examining human perceptions formed during interactions with these chatbots. Our findings indicate that the chatbot's answers on human personality scales exhibit weak correlations with both human-perceived personality traits and the overall interaction quality. These findings raise concerns about both the criterion validity and the predictive validity of self-report methods in this context. Further analysis revealed the role of task context and interaction in the chatbot's personality design assessment. We further discuss design implications for creating more contextualized and interactive evaluation.
title Can LLM "Self-report"?: Evaluating the Validity of Self-report Scales in Measuring Personality Design in LLM-based Chatbots
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.00207