Can LLMs Ground when they (Don't) Know: A Study on Direct and Loaded Political Questions

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Lachenmaier, Clara, Sieker, Judith, Zarrieß, Sina
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Lachenmaier, Clara
Sieker, Judith
Zarrieß, Sina
author_facet Lachenmaier, Clara
Sieker, Judith
Zarrieß, Sina
contents Communication among humans relies on conversational grounding, allowing interlocutors to reach mutual understanding even when they do not have perfect knowledge and must resolve discrepancies in each other's beliefs. This paper investigates how large language models (LLMs) manage common ground in cases where they (don't) possess knowledge, focusing on facts in the political domain where the risk of misinformation and grounding failure is high. We examine the ability of LLMs to answer direct knowledge questions and loaded questions that presuppose misinformation. We evaluate whether loaded questions lead LLMs to engage in active grounding and correct false user beliefs, in connection to their level of knowledge and their political bias. Our findings highlight significant challenges in LLMs' ability to engage in grounding and reject false user beliefs, raising concerns about their role in mitigating misinformation in political discourse.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_08952
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Can LLMs Ground when they (Don't) Know: A Study on Direct and Loaded Political Questions
Lachenmaier, Clara
Sieker, Judith
Zarrieß, Sina
Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
Communication among humans relies on conversational grounding, allowing interlocutors to reach mutual understanding even when they do not have perfect knowledge and must resolve discrepancies in each other's beliefs. This paper investigates how large language models (LLMs) manage common ground in cases where they (don't) possess knowledge, focusing on facts in the political domain where the risk of misinformation and grounding failure is high. We examine the ability of LLMs to answer direct knowledge questions and loaded questions that presuppose misinformation. We evaluate whether loaded questions lead LLMs to engage in active grounding and correct false user beliefs, in connection to their level of knowledge and their political bias. Our findings highlight significant challenges in LLMs' ability to engage in grounding and reject false user beliefs, raising concerns about their role in mitigating misinformation in political discourse.
title Can LLMs Ground when they (Don't) Know: A Study on Direct and Loaded Political Questions
topic Computation and Language
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08952