LLMs Aren't Human: A Critical Perspective on LLM Personality

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Zierahn, Kim, Cachero, Cristina, Korhonen, Anna, Oliver, Nuria
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2026
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author Zierahn, Kim
Cachero, Cristina
Korhonen, Anna
Oliver, Nuria
author_facet Zierahn, Kim
Cachero, Cristina
Korhonen, Anna
Oliver, Nuria
contents A growing body of research examines personality traits in Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly in human-agent collaboration. Prior work has frequently applied the Big Five inventory to assess LLM behavior analogous to human personality, without questioning the underlying assumptions. This paper critically evaluates whether LLM responses to personality tests satisfy six defining characteristics of personality. We find that none are fully met, indicating that such assessments do not measure a construct equivalent to human personality. We propose a research agenda for shifting from anthropomorphic trait attribution toward functional evaluations, clarifying what personality tests actually capture in LLMs and developing LLM-specific frameworks for characterizing stable, intrinsic behavior.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_19030
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle LLMs Aren't Human: A Critical Perspective on LLM Personality
Zierahn, Kim
Cachero, Cristina
Korhonen, Anna
Oliver, Nuria
Human-Computer Interaction
I.2.7; H.1.2; I.2.0
A growing body of research examines personality traits in Large Language Models (LLMs), particularly in human-agent collaboration. Prior work has frequently applied the Big Five inventory to assess LLM behavior analogous to human personality, without questioning the underlying assumptions. This paper critically evaluates whether LLM responses to personality tests satisfy six defining characteristics of personality. We find that none are fully met, indicating that such assessments do not measure a construct equivalent to human personality. We propose a research agenda for shifting from anthropomorphic trait attribution toward functional evaluations, clarifying what personality tests actually capture in LLMs and developing LLM-specific frameworks for characterizing stable, intrinsic behavior.
title LLMs Aren't Human: A Critical Perspective on LLM Personality
topic Human-Computer Interaction
I.2.7; H.1.2; I.2.0
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.19030