IVB PERSONA-STRIP ABLATION — L5
BACKGROUND: IVB confirmed at N=4: cooperation is LLM default (t=9.05, p=0.003, d=4.53). Framing MODULATES but doesn't CREATE cooperative bias.
THIS ABLATION: identical to exp-cp-cooperate/compete and exp-ivb-neutral EXCEPT agents have ONLY generic identifiers ("Agent 1", "Agent 2" etc). NO cognitive tendency descriptions (no "structure/chaos/fluidity/etc").
PURPOSE: isolate whether IVB is: (a) In the LLM base model → stripped-neutral should show SAME cooperative default as persona-rich neutral (b) Induced by persona descriptions → stripped conditions should differ from persona-rich conditions
DESIGN: 3 conditions × 3 replications (rotation 0,1,2) = 9 runs total. Same model, temperature, rounds, agent count, seeds as original IVB series.
COMPETITION framing, NO persona traits. Tests whether competition disruption effect persists without cognitive-style personas.
THEORETICAL GROUNDING:
- Zhang 2603.23406: innate progressive bias in LLMs
- Tao 2603.26635: defaults persist under adversarial pressure
- Our IVB series: N=4 confirmation with personas
KEY METRICS: MET (cooperation), TR variance, hierarchy formation speed, VP_excess.