Can LLMs Reason About Trust?: A Pilot Study

TL;DR

This study explores whether Large Language Models can understand and influence trust relationships between individuals, which is crucial for social interactions and cooperation in digital environments.

Contribution

It is the first to evaluate LLMs' reasoning about trust and their ability to induce trust through role-playing in social scenarios.

Findings

LLMs can reason about trust between individuals.

LLMs can simulate trust-based interactions through role-playing.

Preliminary results suggest potential for AI to support social relationship management.

Abstract

In human society, trust is an essential component of social attitude that helps build and maintain long-term, healthy relationships which creates a strong foundation for cooperation, enabling individuals to work together effectively and achieve shared goals. As many human interactions occur through electronic means such as using mobile apps, the potential arises for AI systems to assist users in understanding the social state of their relationships. In this paper we investigate the ability of Large Language Models (LLMs) to reason about trust between two individuals in an environment which requires fostering trust relationships. We also assess whether LLMs are capable of inducing trust by role-playing one party in a trust based interaction and planning actions which can instil trust.