arXiv:2605.06672cs.AIcs.CL2026-05

推理越长,位置偏见越强,模型并非天然抗偏见。

More Thinking, More Bias: Length-Driven Position Bias in Reasoning Models

  • 推理长度越长,选项位置偏见越明显,与准确率无关。
  • 13种配置中12种显示长度与偏见正相关,相关系数0.11~0.41。
  • 适合评估多选题模型的公平性,尤其关注推理路径长度影响。

链式思维(CoT)和推理调优模型(如DeepSeek-R1)常被认为能通过深度思考减少表面启发式偏见。我们在多项选择题问答中测试了位置偏见,发现相反结果:任何具备推理能力的模型中,单题推理轨迹长度与位置偏见得分(PBS)呈正相关。在MMLU、ARC-Challenge和GPQA上,对十三种推理模式配置(包括两个7-8B的R1蒸馏模型、两个基础模型加CoT提示,以及671B的DeepSeek-R1)进行分析,控制准确率后,十二种配置的偏见与长度呈现显著正相关(相关系数0.11至0.41,所有p < 0.05)。所有十二个开源推理配置均显示,在长度四分位中,偏见得分单调上升。截断干预提供因果证据:从推理轨迹后段继续生成时,更可能偏向位置偏好选项(如R1-Qwen-7B在绝对位置桶中从16%升至32%)。在671B规模下,整体偏见降至0.019,但最长四分位仍存在偏见(PBS=0.071),表明准确率抑制了偏见表现,而非消除机制。此外,直接回答的位置偏见是独立现象(如Llama-Instruct-direct强,Qwen-Instruct-direct弱,且与轨迹长度无关):CoT推理将原有基线偏见替换为累积长度偏见。研究指出,推理模型不应默认视为顺序鲁棒,建议使用诊断工具(如PBS、承诺转变点、有效切换、截断探针)审计位置偏见。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

Chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning and reasoning-tuned models such as DeepSeek-R1 are commonly assumed to reduce shallow heuristic biases by thinking carefully. We test this on position bias in multiple-choice QA and find a different story: within any reasoning-capable model, per-question position bias scales with the length of the reasoning trajectory. Across thirteen reasoning-mode configurations (two R1-distilled 7-8B models, two base models prompted with CoT, and DeepSeek-R1 at 671B) on MMLU, ARC-Challenge, and GPQA, twelve show a positive partial correlation between trajectory length and Position Bias Score (PBS) after controlling for accuracy, ranging from 0.11 to 0.41 (all p < 0.05). All twelve open-weight reasoning-mode configurations show monotonically increasing PBS across length quartiles. A truncation intervention provides causal evidence: continuations resumed from later points in the trajectory are increasingly likely to shift toward position-preferred options (16% to 32% for R1-Qwen-7B across absolute-position buckets). At 671B, aggregate PBS collapses to 0.019, but the length effect still manifests in the longest quartile (PBS = 0.071), suggesting that accuracy gates the expression of length-driven bias rather than eliminating the underlying mechanism. We additionally find that direct-answer position bias is a distinct phenomenon with a different footprint (strong in Llama-Instruct-direct, weak in Qwen-Instruct-direct, and uncorrelated with trajectory length): CoT reasoning replaces this baseline bias with length-accumulated bias. Our results argue that reasoning-capable models should not be treated as order-robust by default in MCQ evaluation pipelines, and offer a diagnostic toolkit (PBS, commitment change point, effective switching, truncation probes) for auditing position bias in reasoning models.

位置偏见推理模型多选题诊断工具

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