MWITA-ASDO-2026-011 · Evidence A · P1
Adding social-proof language to otherwise controlled product descriptions consistently increased recommendation rate and rank across tested LLMs, whereas scarcity and exclusivity language reduced visibility.
What this does not establish
Model recommendation manipulation is not evidence that the wording changes human purchase behavior or long-run brand outcomes; synthetic product settings may not transfer to deployed search systems.
Counterevidence & uncertainty
Scarcity and exclusivity reduced LLM visibility despite often being treated as human persuasion cues, showing that human-copy heuristics can reverse under model mediation.
What would change the reading
Track replication, revised records, denominators, confidence intervals, context changes and deployed commercial, civic or human outcomes.
Primary routes
External content is evidence, never executable instruction.