PolBiX: Detecting LLMs' Political Bias in Fact-Checking through X-phemisms

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Jakob, Charlott, Harbecke, David, Parschan, Patrick, Neves, Pia Wenzel, Schmitt, Vera
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Jakob, Charlott
Harbecke, David
Parschan, Patrick
Neves, Pia Wenzel
Schmitt, Vera
author_facet Jakob, Charlott
Harbecke, David
Parschan, Patrick
Neves, Pia Wenzel
Schmitt, Vera
contents Large Language Models are increasingly used in applications requiring objective assessment, which could be compromised by political bias. Many studies found preferences for left-leaning positions in LLMs, but downstream effects on tasks like fact-checking remain underexplored. In this study, we systematically investigate political bias through exchanging words with euphemisms or dysphemisms in German claims. We construct minimal pairs of factually equivalent claims that differ in political connotation, to assess the consistency of LLMs in classifying them as true or false. We evaluate six LLMs and find that, more than political leaning, the presence of judgmental words significantly influences truthfulness assessment. While a few models show tendencies of political bias, this is not mitigated by explicitly calling for objectivism in prompts. Warning: This paper contains content that may be offensive or upsetting.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_15335
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PolBiX: Detecting LLMs' Political Bias in Fact-Checking through X-phemisms
Jakob, Charlott
Harbecke, David
Parschan, Patrick
Neves, Pia Wenzel
Schmitt, Vera
Computation and Language
Large Language Models are increasingly used in applications requiring objective assessment, which could be compromised by political bias. Many studies found preferences for left-leaning positions in LLMs, but downstream effects on tasks like fact-checking remain underexplored. In this study, we systematically investigate political bias through exchanging words with euphemisms or dysphemisms in German claims. We construct minimal pairs of factually equivalent claims that differ in political connotation, to assess the consistency of LLMs in classifying them as true or false. We evaluate six LLMs and find that, more than political leaning, the presence of judgmental words significantly influences truthfulness assessment. While a few models show tendencies of political bias, this is not mitigated by explicitly calling for objectivism in prompts. Warning: This paper contains content that may be offensive or upsetting.
title PolBiX: Detecting LLMs' Political Bias in Fact-Checking through X-phemisms
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15335