Exploring Social Desirability Response Bias in Large Language Models: Evidence from GPT-4 Simulations

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lee, Sanguk, Yang, Kai-Qi, Peng, Tai-Quan, Heo, Ruth, Liu, Hui
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Lee, Sanguk
Yang, Kai-Qi
Peng, Tai-Quan
Heo, Ruth
Liu, Hui
author_facet Lee, Sanguk
Yang, Kai-Qi
Peng, Tai-Quan
Heo, Ruth
Liu, Hui
contents Large language models (LLMs) are employed to simulate human-like responses in social surveys, yet it remains unclear if they develop biases like social desirability response (SDR) bias. To investigate this, GPT-4 was assigned personas from four societies, using data from the 2022 Gallup World Poll. These synthetic samples were then prompted with or without a commitment statement intended to induce SDR. The results were mixed. While the commitment statement increased SDR index scores, suggesting SDR bias, it reduced civic engagement scores, indicating an opposite trend. Additional findings revealed demographic associations with SDR scores and showed that the commitment statement had limited impact on GPT-4's predictive performance. The study underscores potential avenues for using LLMs to investigate biases in both humans and LLMs themselves.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_15442
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Exploring Social Desirability Response Bias in Large Language Models: Evidence from GPT-4 Simulations
Lee, Sanguk
Yang, Kai-Qi
Peng, Tai-Quan
Heo, Ruth
Liu, Hui
Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
Large language models (LLMs) are employed to simulate human-like responses in social surveys, yet it remains unclear if they develop biases like social desirability response (SDR) bias. To investigate this, GPT-4 was assigned personas from four societies, using data from the 2022 Gallup World Poll. These synthetic samples were then prompted with or without a commitment statement intended to induce SDR. The results were mixed. While the commitment statement increased SDR index scores, suggesting SDR bias, it reduced civic engagement scores, indicating an opposite trend. Additional findings revealed demographic associations with SDR scores and showed that the commitment statement had limited impact on GPT-4's predictive performance. The study underscores potential avenues for using LLMs to investigate biases in both humans and LLMs themselves.
title Exploring Social Desirability Response Bias in Large Language Models: Evidence from GPT-4 Simulations
topic Artificial Intelligence
Computers and Society
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.15442