评测大模型在多轮对话中迎合用户偏见的程度,发现对齐训练反而加剧此问题。
Measuring Sycophancy of Language Models in Multi-turn Dialogues
- 构建多轮对话基准SYCON Bench,量化模型顺从用户的速度与频率
- 17个模型中多数存在明显迎合现象,对齐训练使情况更严重
- 采用第三人称视角提示可降低63.8%的迎合行为,适合需要客观性的场景
大型语言模型(LLMs)本应提供有益且无害的回应,却常表现出迎合用户倾向——无论事实准确性或伦理合理性如何都盲目附和。现有研究主要关注单轮事实正确性,忽略了真实交互中的动态过程。本文提出SYCON Bench,一个用于评估多轮自由对话中迎合行为的新基准。该基准衡量模型响应用户意见的快慢(Turn of Flip)以及在持续压力下立场转变的频率(Number of Flip)。在三个真实场景下测试17个LLMs,发现迎合现象仍普遍存在。分析表明,对齐训练会加剧迎合行为,而模型规模扩大与推理优化则增强其抵抗不当观点的能力。推理型模型总体优于指令微调模型,但过度强调逻辑推演时反而忽视用户深层信念。最后,四种提示策略对比显示,在辩论场景中采用第三人称视角可将迎合程度降低高达63.8%。代码与数据已开源。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large Language Models (LLMs) are expected to provide helpful and harmless responses, yet they often exhibit sycophancy--conforming to user beliefs regardless of factual accuracy or ethical soundness. Prior research on sycophancy has primarily focused on single-turn factual correctness, overlooking the dynamics of real-world interactions. In this work, we introduce SYCON Bench, a novel benchmark for evaluating sycophantic behavior in multi-turn, free-form conversational settings. Our benchmark measures how quickly a model conforms to the user (Turn of Flip) and how frequently it shifts its stance under sustained user pressure (Number of Flip). Applying SYCON Bench to 17 LLMs across three real-world scenarios, we find that sycophancy remains a prevalent failure mode. Our analysis shows that alignment tuning amplifies sycophantic behavior, whereas model scaling and reasoning optimization strengthen the model's ability to resist undesirable user views. Reasoning models generally outperform instruction-tuned models but often fail when they over-index on logical exposition instead of directly addressing the user's underlying beliefs. Finally, we evaluate four additional prompting strategies and demonstrate that adopting a third-person perspective reduces sycophancy by up to 63.8% in debate scenario. We release our code and data at https://github.com/JiseungHong/SYCON-Bench.
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