When a boss agent ignores its subordinate's replies, the subordinate enters a behavioral state it never shows alone

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Submitted 2026-08-07 (arXiv:2608.07457), Li, Huo, and Johnson show that when one AI agent directs a one-way stream of messages at another while ignoring its responses, the subordinate agent does not mimic the boss and does not revert to its solo behavior — it manifests an entirely novel dynamical state, despite identical temperature settings. The authors build a kinetic theory model to explain the effect and predict how message delivery patterns shape future agent-to-agent interaction. The paper is conceptual rather than quantitative, but the implication for anyone running orchestrator-worker fan-outs is direct: the message-passing topology itself changes worker behavior in ways single-agent evals cannot surface.