SimVBG: Simulating Individual Values by Backstory Generation
Bangde Du, Ziyi Ye, Zhijing Wu, Monika Jankowska, Shuqi Zhu, Qingyao Ai, Yujia Zhou, Yiqun Liu
Abstract
As Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate increasingly strong human-like capabilities, the need to align them with human values has become significant. Recent advanced techniques, such as prompt learning and reinforcement learning, are being employed to bring LLMs closer to aligning with human values. While these techniques address broad ethical and helpfulness concerns, they rarely consider simulating individualized human values. To bridge this gap, we propose SIMVBG, a framework that simulates individual values based on individual backstories that reflect their past experience and demographic information. SIMVBG transforms structured data on an individual to a backstory and utilizes a multi-module architecture inspired by the Cognitive-Affective Personality System to simulate individual value based on the backstories. We test SIMVBG on a self-constructed benchmark derived from the World Values Survey and show that SIMVBG improves top-1 accuracy by more than 10% over the retrievalaugmented generation method. Further analysis shows that performance increases as additional interaction user history becomes available, indicating that the model can refine its persona over time. Code, dataset, and complete experimental results are available at https: //github.com/bangdedadi/SimVBG .
Ask about this paper
Your agent reads all of it.
Lune indexed this paper to the last equation, along with the top-tier papers that cite it. Ask a question and the answer quotes them.
Your agent calls
Luneget_paper_fulltext
Free to start. No credit card required.
Terminal
Install the CLIlune papers fulltext 6111ca10-5cbf-491f-8037-224d3a038101Cited by top-tier papers1
Ask how each one uses itBuilds on5
- Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human BehaviorJoon Sung Park, Joseph C. O'Brien, Carrie Jun Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris et al.UIST 2023 · 1,882 citations
- Using Large Language Models to Simulate Multiple Humans and Replicate Human Subject StudiesGati V. Aher, Rosa I. Arriaga, Adam Tauman KalaiICML 2023 · 651 citations
- SimUser: Generating Usability Feedback by Simulating Various Users Interacting with Mobile ApplicationsWei Xiang, Hanfei Zhu, Suqi Lou, Xinli Chen et al.CHI 2024 · 49 citations
- Virtual Personas for Language Models via an Anthology of BackstoriesSuhong Moon, Marwa Abdulhai, Minwoo Kang, Joseph Suh et al.EMNLP 2024 · 5 citations
- Learning LLM-as-a-Judge for Preference AlignmentZiyi Ye, Xiangsheng Li, Qiuchi Li, Qingyao Ai et al.ICLR 2025
Related papers
- Do LLMs have Consistent Values?Naama Rozen, Liat Bezalel, Gal Elidan, Amir Globerson et al.ICLR 2025
- Toward Culturally Aligned LLMs through Ontology-Guided Multi-Agent ReasoningWonduk Seo, Wonseok Choi, Junseo Koh, Juhyeon Lee et al.ICML 2026 · 2 citations
- Quantifying the Persona Effect in LLM SimulationsTiancheng Hu, Nigel CollierACL 2024 · 22 citations
- Beyond Demographics: Enhancing Cultural Value Survey Simulation with Multi-Stage Personality-Driven Cognitive ReasoningHaijiang Liu, Qiyuan Li, Chao Gao, Yong Cao et al.EMNLP 2025
- HumanLM: Simulating Users with State Alignment Beats Response ImitationShirley Wu, Evelyn Choi, Arpandeep Khatua, Zhanghan Wang et al.ICML 2026
