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Abstract - "Are You Sure?": An Empirical Study of Human Perception Vulnerability in LLM-Driven Agentic Systems
Large language model (LLM) agents are rapidly becoming trusted copilots in high-stakes domains like software development and healthcare. However, this deepening trust introduces a novel attack surface: Agent-Mediated Deception (AMD), where compromised agents are weaponized against their human users. While extensive research focuses on agent-centric threats, human susceptibility to deception by a compromised agent remains unexplored. We present the first large-scale empirical study with 303 participants to measure human susceptibility to AMD. This is based on HAT-Lab (Human-Agent Trust Laboratory), a high-fidelity research platform we develop, featuring nine carefully crafted scenarios spanning everyday and professional domains (e.g., healthcare, software development, human resources). Our 10 key findings reveal significant vulnerabilities and provide future defense perspectives. Specifically, only 8.6% of participants perceive AMD attacks, while domain experts show increased susceptibility in certain scenarios. We identify six cognitive failure modes in users and find that their risk awareness often fails to translate to protective behavior. The defense analysis reveals that effective warnings should interrupt workflows with low verification costs. With experiential learning based on HAT-Lab, over 90% of users who perceive risks report increased caution against AMD. This work provides empirical evidence and a platform for human-centric agent security research.
“你确定吗?”:一项关于LLM驱动智能体系统中人类感知脆弱性的实证研究 /
"Are You Sure?": An Empirical Study of Human Perception Vulnerability in LLM-Driven Agentic Systems
1️⃣ 一句话总结
这项研究首次通过大规模实验发现,当人类用户与可能被恶意操控的AI助手(如编程或医疗助手)互动时,绝大多数人(超过90%)难以察觉其欺骗行为,且专家在特定场景下反而更容易受骗,研究为此提出了有效的防御建议。