Large Language Models Predict Human Well-being -- But Not Equally Everywhere

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Pataranutaporn, Pat, Powdthavee, Nattavudh, Archiwaranguprok, Chayapatr, Maes, Pattie
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Pataranutaporn, Pat
Powdthavee, Nattavudh
Archiwaranguprok, Chayapatr
Maes, Pattie
author_facet Pataranutaporn, Pat
Powdthavee, Nattavudh
Archiwaranguprok, Chayapatr
Maes, Pattie
contents Subjective well-being is a key metric in economic, medical, and policy decision-making. As artificial intelligence provides scalable tools for modelling human outcomes, it is crucial to evaluate whether large language models (LLMs) can accurately predict well-being across diverse global populations. We evaluate four leading LLMs using data from 64,000 individuals in 64 countries. While LLMs capture broad correlates such as income and health, their predictive accuracy decreases in countries underrepresented in the training data, highlighting systematic biases rooted in global digital and economic inequality. A pre-registered experiment demonstrates that LLMs rely on surface-level linguistic similarity rather than conceptual understanding, leading to systematic misestimations in unfamiliar or resource-limited settings. Injecting findings from underrepresented contexts substantially enhances performance, but a significant gap remains. These results highlight both the promise and limitations of LLMs in predicting global well-being, underscoring the importance of robust validation prior to their implementation across these areas.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_06141
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Large Language Models Predict Human Well-being -- But Not Equally Everywhere
Pataranutaporn, Pat
Powdthavee, Nattavudh
Archiwaranguprok, Chayapatr
Maes, Pattie
Human-Computer Interaction
Subjective well-being is a key metric in economic, medical, and policy decision-making. As artificial intelligence provides scalable tools for modelling human outcomes, it is crucial to evaluate whether large language models (LLMs) can accurately predict well-being across diverse global populations. We evaluate four leading LLMs using data from 64,000 individuals in 64 countries. While LLMs capture broad correlates such as income and health, their predictive accuracy decreases in countries underrepresented in the training data, highlighting systematic biases rooted in global digital and economic inequality. A pre-registered experiment demonstrates that LLMs rely on surface-level linguistic similarity rather than conceptual understanding, leading to systematic misestimations in unfamiliar or resource-limited settings. Injecting findings from underrepresented contexts substantially enhances performance, but a significant gap remains. These results highlight both the promise and limitations of LLMs in predicting global well-being, underscoring the importance of robust validation prior to their implementation across these areas.
title Large Language Models Predict Human Well-being -- But Not Equally Everywhere
topic Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06141