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Autori principali: Batzner, Jan, Stocker, Volker, Tang, Bingjun, Natarajan, Anusha, Chen, Qinhao, Schmid, Stefan, Kasneci, Gjergji
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00461
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author Batzner, Jan
Stocker, Volker
Tang, Bingjun
Natarajan, Anusha
Chen, Qinhao
Schmid, Stefan
Kasneci, Gjergji
author_facet Batzner, Jan
Stocker, Volker
Tang, Bingjun
Natarajan, Anusha
Chen, Qinhao
Schmid, Stefan
Kasneci, Gjergji
contents Synthetic personae experiments have become a prominent method in Large Language Model alignment research, yet the representativeness and ecological validity of these personae vary considerably between studies. Through a review of 63 peer-reviewed studies published between 2023 and 2025 in leading NLP and AI venues, we reveal a critical gap: task and population of interest are often underspecified in persona-based experiments, despite personalization being fundamentally dependent on these criteria. Our analysis shows substantial differences in user representation, with most studies focusing on limited sociodemographic attributes and only 35% discussing the representativeness of their LLM personae. Based on our findings, we introduce a persona transparency checklist that emphasizes representative sampling, explicit grounding in empirical data, and enhanced ecological validity. Our work provides both a comprehensive assessment of current practices and practical guidelines to improve the rigor and ecological validity of persona-based evaluations in language model alignment research.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_00461
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Whose Personae? Synthetic Persona Experiments in LLM Research and Pathways to Transparency
Batzner, Jan
Stocker, Volker
Tang, Bingjun
Natarajan, Anusha
Chen, Qinhao
Schmid, Stefan
Kasneci, Gjergji
Computers and Society
Computation and Language
Synthetic personae experiments have become a prominent method in Large Language Model alignment research, yet the representativeness and ecological validity of these personae vary considerably between studies. Through a review of 63 peer-reviewed studies published between 2023 and 2025 in leading NLP and AI venues, we reveal a critical gap: task and population of interest are often underspecified in persona-based experiments, despite personalization being fundamentally dependent on these criteria. Our analysis shows substantial differences in user representation, with most studies focusing on limited sociodemographic attributes and only 35% discussing the representativeness of their LLM personae. Based on our findings, we introduce a persona transparency checklist that emphasizes representative sampling, explicit grounding in empirical data, and enhanced ecological validity. Our work provides both a comprehensive assessment of current practices and practical guidelines to improve the rigor and ecological validity of persona-based evaluations in language model alignment research.
title Whose Personae? Synthetic Persona Experiments in LLM Research and Pathways to Transparency
topic Computers and Society
Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.00461