Deceive, Detect, and Disclose: Large Language Models Play Mini-Mafia
#Large Language Models#Social Deduction#Mafia game#Theory of Mind#Multi-agent systems#Deception detection#arXiv research
📌 Key Takeaways
Researchers developed 'Mini-Mafia,' a simplified four-player social deduction game to test AI social intelligence.
The framework evaluates how Large Language Models handle deception and asymmetric information sharing.
The study focuses on 'Theory of Mind,' testing if AI can reason about the hidden intentions of other agents.
This research provides a benchmark for developing more sophisticated and socially aware multi-agent AI systems.
📖 Full Retelling
A team of researchers has introduced 'Mini-Mafia,' a specialized testing framework designed to evaluate the social intelligence of Large Language Models (LLMs) through a simplified version of the popular social deduction game. The study, detailed in a paper updated on the arXiv preprint server in late 2024, utilizes a four-player game structure consisting of one mafioso, one detective, and two villagers to measure how effectively AI agents can handle information asymmetry and theory-of-mind reasoning. This experimentation aims to bridge the gap between static AI performance and the complex, deceptive multi-agent environments found in real-world human interactions.
The 'Mini-Mafia' variant was specifically constructed to provide a controlled environment for systematic study, moving away from more complex, larger versions of the game that can be computationally expensive or difficult to analyze. By limiting the player count and roles, the researchers can focus on the critical mechanics of deception and detection. In this setup, the 'informed' agent (the mafioso) must deceive others to survive, while the 'uninformed' agents (the townsfolk) must use logic and behavioral analysis to reveal the hidden threat.
Central to the research is the concept of 'Theory of Mind,' which refers to the ability to attribute mental states—such as beliefs, intents, and knowledge—to oneself and others. Because Mafia relies heavily on understanding what other players know versus what they are pretending to know, it serves as a rigorous benchmark for LLMs. The study explores whether current models can maintain consistent personas, detect lies in their peers, and strategically disclose or withhold information to achieve a group or individual goal.
The findings from this research have significant implications for the development of more sophisticated AI assistants and autonomous agents. As LLMs are increasingly integrated into collaborative workspaces and social platforms, understanding their capacity for strategic reasoning and their vulnerability to or aptitude for deception is vital. 'Mini-Mafia' represents a step toward quantifiable metrics for social artificial intelligence, allowing developers to see where models fail in nuanced, high-stakes communication scenarios.
🏷️ Themes
Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory, Social Intelligence
📚 Related People & Topics
Theory of mind
Ability to attribute mental states to oneself and others
In psychology and philosophy, theory of mind (often abbreviated to ToM) is the capacity to understand other individuals by ascribing mental states to them. A theory of mind includes the understanding that others' beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, and thoughts may be different from one's own. P...
A large language model (LLM) is a language model trained with self-supervised machine learning on a vast amount of text, designed for natural language processing tasks, especially language generation. The largest and most capable LLMs are generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) that provide the c...
arXiv:2509.23023v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: Mafia is a social deduction game where informed mafia compete against uninformed townsfolk. Its asymmetry of information and reliance on theory-of-mind reasoning mirror real-world multi-agent scenarios, making it a useful testbed for evaluating the social intelligence of large language models (LLMs). To support a systematic study, we introduce Mini-Mafia: a simplified four-player variant with one mafioso, one detective and two villagers. We se