Simulating Eating Disorder Patients with LLMs: Evaluating Psychological Persona Stability in Multi-Turn Conversations
Jennifer Haase; Jana Gonnermann-Müller; See Heng Yim; Nicolas Leins; Jan Mendling; Sebastian Pokutta · 2026 · arXiv
WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate
The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.
Abstract (excerpt)
Large language model (LLM)-based simulations of clinical patients are increasingly used for research and training, yet their validity requires persona stability: coherent maintenance of an assigned psychological profile across and within conversations. We evaluate this prerequisite using eating disorder personas grounded in five published case vignettes, a dual-assessment framework (self-report + independent observer ratings), and validated psychometric instruments (EDE-Q) with known ground-truth scores. Across six LLMs and two experiments (between-conversation stability (Exp. I) and within-co
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Metadata source: arXiv