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.

翻译：社会规范干预通过强调普遍行为来促进亲社会行为，但在缺乏共同行为认知的异质群体中，其有效性往往受限。本研究探讨多智能体系统能否建立"虚拟社会规范"以鼓励捐赠行为。我们开展了一项在线实验，参与者与一组智能体讨论捐赠行为。实验测量了讨论前后感知社会规范、从众倾向、捐赠行为及用户体验的变化。结果表明，多智能体交互有效提升了感知社会规范与捐赠意愿。值得注意的是，与外部群体智能体相比，内部群体智能体引发了更强的感知社会规范、更高的从众倾向及更显著的捐赠行为增长。我们的研究证明了多智能体系统创建社会规范干预的潜力，并为利用社会认同机制促进虚拟环境中的亲社会行为提供了新思路。