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Published on: December 6, 2024
692
LLM-generated messages can persuade humans on policy issues
Hui Bai1,2, Jan G Voelkel3,4,5, Shane Muldowney3
1Politics and Social Change Lab, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. maxhuibai@politicalbelieflab.com.
Nature Communications
|July 2, 2025
Summary
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) can craft persuasive political messages. Large language models (LLMs) effectively influence human attitudes on policies, matching human capabilities.
Area of Science:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Political Science
- Communication Studies
Background:
- Large language models (LLMs) represent a significant advancement in generative artificial intelligence (AI).
- AI's capacity for higher-order cognitive tasks has broad implications for various sectors, including politics.
- The potential for AI-generated content to influence public opinion is a growing concern.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of openly-available LLMs in generating persuasive political messages.
- To determine if LLM-generated messages can significantly alter human political attitudes.
- To compare the persuasive power of LLM-generated messages with human-crafted messages.
Main Methods:
- Conducted three pre-registered experiments with a total of 4829 participants.
- Exposed participants to persuasive messages generated by LLMs and control messages.
- Measured participants' attitude changes towards various policies, including polarized issues.
Main Results:
- Participants exposed to LLM-generated messages showed significantly greater attitude change compared to the control group.
- LLM-generated messages were comparably effective in influencing policy attitudes as messages written by humans.
- Perceptions of message authors differed: LLM messages were associated with perceived use of facts and logic, while human messages were linked to originality.
Conclusions:
- Open-source LLMs can rapidly, affordably, and at scale produce politically persuasive content.
- AI-driven messaging presents a new frontier in political communication and attitude manipulation.
- Understanding the distinct persuasive pathways of AI versus human-generated content is crucial.
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