Are Large Language Models Sensitive to the Motives Behind Communication?
biased sourcescognitive sciencecontent evaluationcredibility assessmenthuman-like behaviorinformation ecosystemsmotivated communicationmotivated testimonymotivational vigilancerational modelssalience of intentionssponsored online advertssteering interventiontrust in statements
Human communication is $\textit{motivated}$: people speak, write, and create content with a particular communicative intent in mind. As a result, information that large language models (LLMs) and AI agents process is inherently framed by humans' intentions and incentives. People are adept at navigating such nuanced information: we routinely identify benevolent or self-serving motives in order to decide what statements to trust. For LLMs to be effective in the real world, they too must critically evaluate content by factoring in the motivations of the source