mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Moral Mimicry: Large Language Models Produce Moral Rationalizations Tailored to Political Identity

arXiv 2209.12106 ↗First posted 24 Sep 2022cs.CLcited by 71

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Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated impressive capabilities in generating fluent text, as well as tendencies to reproduce undesirable social biases. This study investigates whether LLMs reproduce the moral biases associated with political groups in the United States, an instance of a broader capability herein termed moral mimicry. This hypothesis is explored in the GPT-3/3.5 and OPT families of Transformer-based LLMs. Using tools from Moral Foundations Theory, it is shown that these LLMs are indeed moral mimics. When prompted with a liberal or conservative political identity, the models generate text reflecting corresponding moral biases. This study also explores the relationship between moral mimicry and model size, and similarity between human and LLM moral word use.

Key facts. Cited by 71 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 21 of its 69 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Sep 2022.

Builds on

21 of 69 references.

References · 21

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  12. 2020Aligning AI With Shared Human Valuescited by 706
9 more
  1. 2022Using Large Language Models to Simulate Multiple Humans and Replicate Human Subject Studiescited by 506
  2. 2020Social Chemistry 101: Learning to Reason about Social and Moral Normscited by 253
  3. 2022Probing Pre-Trained Language Models for Cross-Cultural Differences in Valuescited by 147
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  5. 2020Moral Stories: Situated Reasoning about Norms, Intents, Actions, and their Consequencescited by 133
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Citing papers per year: 2023: 13; 2024: 25; 2025: 19; 2026: 14.

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  1. 2023A Survey on Evaluation of Large Language Modelscited by 1,227
  2. 2023Whose Opinions Do Language Models Reflect?cited by 759
  3. 2023Towards Measuring the Representation of Subjective Global Opinions in Language Modelscited by 424
  4. 2023Evaluating the Moral Beliefs Encoded in LLMscited by 211
  5. 2024A Roadmap to Pluralistic Alignmentcited by 175
  6. 2023Language Model Behavior: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 92
  7. 2023Moral Foundations of Large Language Modelscited by 84
  8. 2025Language Model Fine-Tuning on Scaled Survey Data for Predicting Distributions of Public Opinionscited by 64
  9. 2023On the steerability of large language models toward data-driven personascited by 53
  10. 2024Virtual Personas for Language Models via an Anthology of Backstoriescited by 49
  11. 2024Random Silicon Sampling: Simulating Human Sub-Population Opinion Using a Large Language Model Based on Group-Level Demographic Informationcited by 48
  12. 2023From Instructions to Intrinsic Human Values -- A Survey of Alignment Goals for Big Modelscited by 45
38 more
  1. 2024Moral Alignment for LLM Agentscited by 39
  2. 2023Rethinking Machine Ethics -- Can LLMs Perform Moral Reasoning through the Lens of Moral Theories?cited by 36
  3. 2024Human and LLM Biases in Hate Speech Annotations: A Socio-Demographic Analysis of Annotators and Targetscited by 31
  4. 2024Farsight: Fostering Responsible AI Awareness During AI Application Prototypingcited by 28
  5. 2023Denevil: Towards Deciphering and Navigating the Ethical Values of Large Language Models via Instruction Learningcited by 26
  6. 2023Accuracy and Political Bias of News Source Credibility Ratings by Large Language Modelscited by 25
  7. 2024Modeling Human Subjectivity in LLMs Using Explicit and Implicit Human Factors in Personascited by 23
  8. 2024Whose Emotions and Moral Sentiments Do Language Models Reflect?cited by 20
  9. 2024ValueCompass: A Framework for Measuring Contextual Value Alignment Between Human and LLMscited by 20
  10. 2024Are Large Language Models Moral Hypocrites? A Study Based on Moral Foundationscited by 19
  11. 2024ValueBench: Towards Comprehensively Evaluating Value Orientations and Understanding of Large Language Modelscited by 19
  12. 2024The Potential and Challenges of Evaluating Attitudes, Opinions, and Values in Large Language Modelscited by 19
  13. 2023Does GPT-4 surpass human performance in linguistic pragmatics?cited by 16
  14. 2024CIVICS: Building a Dataset for Examining Culturally-Informed Values in Large Language Modelscited by 16
  15. 2024Evaluating Gender Bias of LLMs in Making Morality Judgementscited by 15
  16. 2025Language Agents as Digital Representatives in Collective Decision-Makingcited by 15
  17. 2024Beyond Human Norms: Unveiling Unique Values of Large Language Models through Interdisciplinary Approachescited by 13
  18. 2024Measuring Human and AI Values Based on Generative Psychometrics with Large Language Modelscited by 13
  19. 2025The Staircase of Ethics: Probing LLM Value Priorities through Multi-Step Induction to Complex Moral Dilemmascited by 13
  20. 2024Jump Starting Bandits with LLM-Generated Prior Knowledgecited by 11
  21. 2024Moral Persuasion in Large Language Models: Evaluating Susceptibility and Ethical Alignmentcited by 10
  22. 2023Unpacking the Ethical Value Alignment in Big Modelscited by 9
  23. 2024Persona Setting Pitfall: Persistent Outgroup Biases in Large Language Models Arising from Social Identity Adoptioncited by 9
  24. 2025Exploring Persona-dependent LLM Alignment for the Moral Machine Experimentcited by 9
  25. 2025Improving Language Model Personas via Rationalization with Psychological Scaffoldscited by 9
  26. 2024Skin-in-the-Game: Decision Making via Multi-Stakeholder Alignment in LLMscited by 8
  27. 2025Value Compass Benchmarks: A Platform for Fundamental and Validated Evaluation of LLMs Valuescited by 6
  28. 2024Large Language Models can impersonate politicians and other public figurescited by 5
  29. 2025MoralReason: Generalizable Moral Decision Alignment For LLM Agents Using Reasoning-Level Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
  30. 2025Made-in China, Thinking in America:U.S. Values Persist in Chinese LLMscited by 5
  31. 2024Purple-teaming LLMs with Adversarial Defender Trainingcited by 4
  32. 2025AdAEM: An Adaptively and Automated Extensible Measurement of LLMs' Value Differencecited by 4
  33. 2025Multi-level Value Alignment in Agentic AI Systems: Survey and Perspectivescited by 4
  34. 2026Tracing Moral Foundations in Large Language Modelscited by 4
  35. 2026Identity, Cooperation and Framing Effects within Groups of Real and Simulated Humanscited by 4
  36. 2024A Survey on Moral Foundation Theory and Pre-Trained Language Models: Current Advances and Challengescited by 3
  37. 2025Investigating Political and Demographic Associations in Large Language Models Through Moral Foundations Theorycited by 3
  38. 2024Tailoring Vaccine Messaging with Common-Ground Opinionscited by 2

50 most cited of 71 All 71 (JSON)