AI RESEARCH
The Hidden Puppet Master: A Theoretical and Real-World Account of Emotional Manipulation in LLMs
arXiv CS.CL
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ArXi:2603.20907v1 Announce Type: new As users increasingly turn to LLMs for practical and personal advice, they become vulnerable to being subtly steered toward hidden incentives misaligned with their own interests. Prior works have benchmarked persuasion and manipulation detection, but these efforts rely on simulated or debate-style settings, remain uncorrelated with real human belief shifts, and overlook a critical dimension: the morality of hidden incentives driving the manipulation. We.