发现大模型解释中支持与反向线索的不对称现象。
Support-Contra Asymmetry in LLM Explanations
- 用线性分类器提取输入文本的预测线索,区分支持与反向证据。
- 正确预测时解释多引用支持线索,错误预测时则大量引用反向线索。
- 该现象在多个数据集和模型中稳定存在,适用于分析解释可靠性。
大型语言模型(LLMs)在输出预测结果时常伴随自然语言解释,但这些解释是否参考了输入中的预测性词汇线索尚不明确。本文通过实证研究,分析了LLM生成解释与外部透明线性分类器提取的可解释特征重要性信号之间的对齐关系。采用逻辑回归和线性SVM等参考模型,将预测性词汇线索划分为支持性与矛盾性证据。在WIKIONTOLOGY、AG NEWS和IMDB三个基准数据集上,观察到一致的“支持-矛盾不对称”模式:正确预测的解释更倾向于提及支持性线索,而错误预测的解释则显著引用更多矛盾性线索。该现象在不同数据集、参考模型及特征提取深度下均保持稳定。结果表明,当预测正确时,解释通常反映任务相关的预测性词汇;而错误预测常伴随对误导性线索的引用。研究为理解解释与证据对齐提供了简洁的实证视角,并展示了利用外部预测证据分析解释行为的有效性。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Large Language Models (LLMs) increasingly produce natural language explanations alongside their predictions, yet it remains unclear whether these explanations reference predictive cues present in the input text. In this work, we present an empirical study of how LLM-generated explanations align with predictive lexical evidence from an external model in text classification tasks. To analyze this relationship, we compare explanation content against interpretable feature importance signals extracted from transparent linear classifiers. These reference models allow us to partition predictive lexical cues into supporting and contradicting evidence relative to the predicted label. Across three benchmark datasets-WIKIONTOLOGY, AG NEWS, and IMDB-we observe a consistent empirical pattern that we term support-contra asymmetry. Explanations accompanying correct predictions tend to reference more supporting lexical cues and fewer contradicting cues, whereas explanations associated with incorrect predictions reference substantially more contradicting evidence. This pattern appears consistently across datasets, across reference model families (logistic regression and linear SVM), and across multiple feature retrieval depths. These results suggest that LLM explanations often reflect lexical signals that are predictive for the task when predictions are correct, while incorrect predictions are more frequently associated with explanations that reference misleading cues present in the input. Our findings provide a simple empirical perspective on explanation-evidence alignment and illustrate how external sources of predictive evidence can be used to analyze the behavior of LLM-generated explanations.
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