Exploring the Manifestation of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values in Large Language Models

Researchers Ryan Hyland, Lewis Newsham, and Daniel Prince found that persona prompting can systematically shift the responses of a pre-trained large language model along Schwartz's ten basic human value dimensions, as measured by the Portrait Values Questionnaire Revised (PVQ-RR). The study, presented at the Second International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security (NLPAICS) in Alicante, Spain, in June 2026, used a neutral persona and human baseline as controls and suggests that value-based persona prompts could help configure the expressed response profiles of LLM-based agents.

Abstract This study investigates the manifestation of Schwartz’s Theory of Basic Human Values STBV within a pre-trained Large Language Model LLM by evaluating how persona prompting influences the model’s responses. Specifically, we use prompt-based persona induction to represent Schwartz’s ten broad value types e.g., Universalism, Achievement and measure their effects using the model’s responses to the Portrait Values Questionnaire Revised PVQ-RR . A neutral persona and human baseline serve as control conditions to assess the influence of persona prompting. Prompting strategies are also compared. Results show that value-based persona prompts systematically shift the model’s PVQ-RR response profiles, indicating that LLM questionnaire responses can be steered along Schwartz value dimensions under controlled prompting conditions. These findings suggest that value-based persona prompts may be useful for studying and configuring the expressed response profiles of LLM-based agents. Using Schwartz’s values as a structured measurement framework provides a way to evaluate how LLM responses change under persona prompting and offers a basis for future studies of value-conditioned agent behaviour.- Anthology ID: - 2026.nlpaics-1.21 - Volume: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security /volumes/2026.nlpaics-1/ - Month: - June - Year: - 2026 - Address: - Alicante, Spain - Editors: Ruslan Mitkov /people/ruslan-mitkov/ , Rafael Muñoz /people/rafael-munoz/ , Elena Lloret /people/elena-lloret/unverified/ , Tharindu Ranasinghe /people/tharindu-ranasinghe/ , Ernesto L. Estevanell-Valladares /people/ernesto-luis-estevanell-valladares/ , Salima Lamsiyah /people/salima-lamsiyah/unverified/ , Andrés Montoyo /people/andres-montoyo/ , Saad Ezzini /people/saad-ezzini/ - Venue: NLPAICS /venues/nlpaics/ - SIG: - Publisher: - Department of Languages and Information Systems, University of Alicante - Note: - Pages: - 189–203 - Language: - URL: https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21/ https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21/ - DOI: - Cite ACL : - Ryan Hyland, Lewis Newsham, and Daniel Prince. 2026. Exploring the Manifestation of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values in Large Language Models https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21/ . In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence for Cyber Security , pages 189–203, Alicante, Spain. Department of Languages and Information Systems, University of Alicante. - Cite Informal : Exploring the Manifestation of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values in Large Language Models https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21/ Hyland et al., NLPAICS 2026 - PDF: https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21.pdf https://aclanthology.org/2026.nlpaics-1.21.pdf