Personality Matters: User Traits Predict LLM Preferences in Multi-Turn Collaborative Tasks

Sarfaroz Yunusov, Kaige Chen, Kazi Nishat Anwar, Ali Emami


Abstract
As Large Language Models (LLMs) increasingly integrate into everyday workflows, where users shape outcomes through multi-turn collaboration, a critical question emerges: do users with different personality traits systematically prefer certain LLMs over others? We conduc-ted a study with 32 participants evenly distributed across four Keirsey personality types, evaluating their interactions with GPT-4 and Claude 3.5 across four collaborative tasks: data analysis, creative writing, information retrieval, and writing assistance. Results revealed significant personality-driven preferences: *Rationals* strongly preferred GPT-4, particularly for goal-oriented tasks, while *idealists* favored Claude 3.5, especially for creative and analytical tasks. Other personality types showed task-dependent preferences. Sentiment analysis of qualitative feedback confirmed these patterns. Notably, aggregate helpfulness ratings were similar across models, showing how personality-based analysis reveals LLM differences that traditional evaluations miss.
Anthology ID:
2025.emnlp-main.71
Volume:
Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing
Month:
November
Year:
2025
Address:
Suzhou, China
Editors:
Christos Christodoulopoulos, Tanmoy Chakraborty, Carolyn Rose, Violet Peng
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EMNLP
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Publisher:
Association for Computational Linguistics
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Pages:
1359–1372
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https://preview.aclanthology.org/ingest-emnlp/2025.emnlp-main.71/
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Cite (ACL):
Sarfaroz Yunusov, Kaige Chen, Kazi Nishat Anwar, and Ali Emami. 2025. Personality Matters: User Traits Predict LLM Preferences in Multi-Turn Collaborative Tasks. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pages 1359–1372, Suzhou, China. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):
Personality Matters: User Traits Predict LLM Preferences in Multi-Turn Collaborative Tasks (Yunusov et al., EMNLP 2025)
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