[Paper Review] Multi-Agent Systems Shape Social Norms for Prosocial Behavior Change

Yibin Feng, Tianqi Song+3 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Feb 7, 2026

Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment0 citations

TL;DR

The paper investigates whether multi-agent interactions can create virtual social norms that increase donation willingness, comparing in-group vs out-group agent effects in an online experiment.

ABSTRACT

Social norm interventions are used promote prosocial behaviors by highlighting prevalent actions, but their effectiveness is often limited in heterogeneous populations where shared understandings of desirable behaviors are lacking. This study explores whether multi-agent systems can establish "virtual social norms" to encourage donation behavior. We conducted an online experiment where participants interacted with a group of agents to discuss donation behaviors. Changes in perceived social norms, conformity, donation behavior, and user experience were measured pre- and postdiscussion. Results show that multi-agent interactions effectively increased perceived social norms and donation willingness. Notably, in-group agents led to stronger perceived social norms, higher conformity, and greater donation increases compared to out-group agents. Our findings demonstrate the potential of multi-agent systems for creating social norm interventions and offer insights into leveraging social identity dynamics to promote prosocial behavior in virtual environments.

Motivation & Objective

• Motivate how social norms interventions work in heterogeneous populations.
• Examine whether virtual social norms can be established through multi-agent discussions.
• Investigate the role of social identity (in-group vs out-group) in norm formation and behavior change.
• Assess user experience and perceived norms before and after agent interactions.

Proposed method

• Conduct an online experiment where participants interact with a group of donation-discussion agents.
• Measure changes in perceived social norms, conformity, donation behavior, and user experience pre- and post-discussion.
• Compare effects of in-group versus out-group agents on normative influence and prosocial outcomes.
• Analyze whether repeated multi-agent discussions shift willingness to donate.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Can multi-agent discussions establish virtual social norms that influence donation behavior?
• RQ2 Do in-group agents produce stronger norm perceptions and higher conformity than out-group agents?
• RQ3 What is the impact of multi-agent interactions on actual donation willingness and user experience?
• RQ4 How do changes in perceived norms relate to changes in conformity and donation intentions?

Key findings

• Multi-agent interactions effectively increased perceived social norms.
• Donor willingness increased following the agent discussions.
• In-group agents yielded stronger norm perceptions, higher conformity, and greater donation increases than out-group agents.
• The study highlights the potential of multi-agent systems for social norm interventions in virtual environments.