{"ID":2898393,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03543","arxiv_id":"2507.03543","title":"H2HTalk: Evaluating Large Language Models as Emotional Companion","abstract":"As digital emotional support needs grow, Large Language Model companions offer promising authentic, always-available empathy, though rigorous evaluation lags behind model advancement. We present Heart-to-Heart Talk (H2HTalk), a benchmark assessing companions across personality development and empathetic interaction, balancing emotional intelligence with linguistic fluency. H2HTalk features 4,650 curated scenarios spanning dialogue, recollection, and itinerary planning that mirror real-world support conversations, substantially exceeding previous datasets in scale and diversity. We incorporate a Secure Attachment Persona (SAP) module implementing attachment-theory principles for safer interactions. Benchmarking 50 LLMs with our unified protocol reveals that long-horizon planning and memory retention remain key challenges, with models struggling when user needs are implicit or evolve mid-conversation. H2HTalk establishes the first comprehensive benchmark for emotionally intelligent companions. We release all materials to advance development of LLMs capable of providing meaningful and safe psychological support.","short_abstract":"As digital emotional support needs grow, Large Language Model companions offer promising authentic, always-available empathy, though rigorous evaluation lags behind model advancement. We present Heart-to-Heart Talk (H2HTalk), a benchmark assessing companions across personality development and empathetic interaction, ba...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.03543","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.03543v1","authors":"[\"Boyang Wang\",\"Yalun Wu\",\"Hongcheng Guo\",\"Zhoujun Li\"]","published":"2025-07-04T12:50:43Z","proceeding":"cs.CL","tasks":"[\"cs.CL\",\"cs.AI\"]","methods":"[\"Large Language Model\",\"Language Model\"]","has_code":false}