Compact surrogates could reduce the cost of simulating large language model societies, but must reproduce collective behavior.
We compare individual predictions and collective forecasts using 9,455 published trajectories and new experiments on opinion dynamics.
Neighbor information improves individual prediction in all 16 public-data settings and pooled collective forecasts on held-out questions, although collective gains depend on transfer conditions.
Tests on 24 new statements do not confirm earlier contrasting history effects in forecasts from the initial state.
Qwen benefits from history after three observed rounds.
These findings motivate direct collective validation, explicit limits on available observations, and comparisons with simple baselines.