Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40875803›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2025

Using large language models to categorize strategic situations and decipher motivations behind human behaviors.

Yutong Xie, Qiaozhu Mei, Walter Yuan, Matthew O Jackson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Using large language models to categorize strategic situations and decipher motivations behind human behaviors.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Yutong XieSchool of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.ORCID 0000-0003-3861-6778
Qiaozhu MeiSchool of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109.ORCID 0000-0002-8640-1942
Walter YuanMobLab, Pasadena, CA 91107.
Matthew O JacksonDepartment of Economics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.ORCID 0000-0001-9846-4249

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

By varying prompts to a large language model, we can elicit the full range of human behaviors in a variety of different scenarios in classic economic games. By analyzing which prompts elicit which behaviors, we can categorize and compare different strategic situations, which can also help provide insight into what different economic scenarios might induce people to think about. We discuss how this provides a step toward a nonstandard method of inferring (deciphering) the motivations behind the human behaviors. We also show how this deciphering process can be used to categorize differences in the behavioral tendencies of different populations.

Indexed as

BehaviorLanguageModels, PsychologicalModels, TheoreticalMotivationGame TheoryHumansLarge Language ModelsAIgameshuman behaviormotivationstrategy

Identifiers

PMID40875803
PMCPMC12415233

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.