mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Cultural Bias and Cultural Alignment of Large Language Models

arXiv 2311.14096 ↗First posted 23 Nov 2023cs.CL cs.AIcited by 149

On the map: LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation → Human values and AI feedback alignment

Abstract (arXiv)

Culture fundamentally shapes people's reasoning, behavior, and communication. As people increasingly use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite and automate personal and professional tasks, cultural values embedded in AI models may bias people's authentic expression and contribute to the dominance of certain cultures. We conduct a disaggregated evaluation of cultural bias for five widely used large language models (OpenAI's GPT-4o/4-turbo/4/3.5-turbo/3) by comparing the models' responses to nationally representative survey data. All models exhibit cultural values resembling English-speaking and Protestant European countries. We test cultural prompting as a control strategy to increase cultural alignment for each country/territory. For recent models (GPT-4, 4-turbo, 4o), this improves the cultural alignment of the models' output for 71-81% of countries and territories. We suggest using cultural prompting and ongoing evaluation to reduce cultural bias in the output of generative AI.

Key facts. Cited by 149 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Human values and AI feedback alignment, one of 10 directions in LLM alignment / RLHF / preference optimisation. Builds on 10 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 23 Nov 2023.

Builds on

10 of 51 references.

References · 10

  1. 2016Man is to Computer Programmer as Woman is to Homemaker? Debiasing Word Embeddingscited by 1,312
  2. 2023Assessing Cross-Cultural Alignment between ChatGPT and Human Societies: An Empirical Studycited by 206
  3. 2023Having Beer after Prayer? Measuring Cultural Bias in Large Language Modelscited by 153
  4. 2022Probing Pre-Trained Language Models for Cross-Cultural Differences in Valuescited by 149
  5. 2023Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users' Viewscited by 148
  6. 2023Should ChatGPT be Biased? Challenges and Risks of Bias in Large Language Modelscited by 148
  7. 2022The Ghost in the Machine has an American accent: value conflict in GPT-3cited by 105
  8. 2023Knowledge of cultural moral norms in large language modelscited by 51
  9. 2021Designing Disaggregated Evaluations of AI Systems: Choices, Considerations, and Tradeoffscited by 48
  10. 2021Artificial intelligence in communication impacts language and social relationshipscited by 22

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 29; 2025: 57; 2026: 63.

149 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2024Black-Box Access is Insufficient for Rigorous AI Auditscited by 126
  2. 2024SOTOPIA-π: Interactive Learning of Socially Intelligent Language Agentscited by 93
  3. 2024INCLUDE: Evaluating Multilingual Language Understanding with Regional Knowledgecited by 86
  4. 2024Building Guardrails for Large Language Modelscited by 65
  5. 2024AI Suggestions Homogenize Writing Toward Western Styles and Diminish Cultural Nuancescited by 60
  6. 2025The State of Multilingual LLM Safety Research: From Measuring the Language Gap to Mitigating Itcited by 45
  7. 2024Inverse Constitutional AI: Compressing Preferences into Principlescited by 41
  8. 2024Controllable Safety Alignment: Inference-Time Adaptation to Diverse Safety Requirementscited by 36
  9. 2024CaLMQA: Exploring culturally specific long-form question answering across 23 languagescited by 31
  10. 2024CulturalTeaming: AI-Assisted Interactive Red-Teaming for Challenging LLMs' (Lack of) Multicultural Knowledgecited by 28
  11. 2024LLM-GLOBE: A Benchmark Evaluating the Cultural Values Embedded in LLM Outputcited by 27
  12. 2025Localized Cultural Knowledge is Conserved and Controllable in Large Language Modelscited by 20
38 more
  1. 2024Advanced Natural-based interaction for the ITAlian language: LLaMAntino-3-ANITAcited by 17
  2. 2024CIVICS: Building a Dataset for Examining Culturally-Informed Values in Large Language Modelscited by 16
  3. 2024Can LLMs make trade-offs involving stipulated pain and pleasure states?cited by 16
  4. 2025DeepPersona: A Generative Engine for Scaling Deep Synthetic Personascited by 15
  5. 2024An Evaluation of Estimative Uncertainty in Large Language Modelscited by 13
  6. 2024Beyond Partisan Leaning: A Comparative Analysis of Political Bias in Large Language Modelscited by 13
  7. 2025ValuesRAG: Enhancing Cultural Alignment Through Retrieval-Augmented Contextual Learningcited by 10
  8. 2024CRAFT: Extracting and Tuning Cultural Instructions from the Wildcited by 8
  9. 2026Do VLMs Perceive or Recall? Probing Visual Perception vs. Memory with Classic Visual Illusionscited by 8
  10. 2026Computational Hermeneutics: Evaluating generative AI as a cultural technologycited by 8
  11. 2025Deterministic or probabilistic? The psychology of LLMs as random number generatorscited by 7
  12. 2025Mapping Geopolitical Bias in 11 Large Language Models: A Bilingual, Dual-Framing Analysis of U.S.-China Tensionscited by 7
  13. 2025AI-generated stories favour stability over change: homogeneity and cultural stereotyping in narratives generated by gpt-4o-minicited by 7
  14. 2025Training-Free Safe Text Embedding Guidance for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 7
  15. 2024Antagonistic AIcited by 6
  16. 2024Unveiling and Mitigating Bias in Large Language Model Recommendations: A Path to Fairnesscited by 6
  17. 2025Poor Alignment and Steerability of Large Language Models: Evidence from College Admission Essayscited by 6
  18. 2025CAReDiO: Cultural Alignment via Representativeness and Distinctiveness Guided Data Optimizationcited by 6
  19. 2025Linguistic Comparison of AI- and Human-Written Responses to Online Mental Health Queriescited by 6
  20. 2025AI Agent Behavioral Sciencecited by 6
  21. 2025Large Language Models as Psychological Simulators: A Methodological Guidecited by 6
  22. 2024GPT-ology, Computational Models, Silicon Sampling: How should we think about LLMs in Cognitive Science?cited by 5
  23. 2024ExploreSelf: Fostering User-driven Exploration and Reflection on Personal Challenges with Adaptive Guidance by Large Language Modelscited by 5
  24. 2024Verbosity neq Veracity: Demystify Verbosity Compensation Behavior of Large Language Modelscited by 5
  25. 2025Echoes of Power: Investigating Geopolitical Bias in US and China Large Language Modelscited by 5
  26. 2025WorldView-Bench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Global Cultural Perspectives in Large Language Modelscited by 5
  27. 2026Tacit Coordination of Large Language Modelscited by 5
  28. 2024OMGEval: An Open Multilingual Generative Evaluation Benchmark for Large Language Modelscited by 4
  29. 2025Fair-PP: A Synthetic Dataset for Aligning LLM with Personalized Preferences of Social Equitycited by 4
  30. 2025AdAEM: An Adaptively and Automated Extensible Measurement of LLMs' Value Differencecited by 4
  31. 2025Value Alignment of Social Media Ranking Algorithmscited by 4
  32. 2026Feedback by Design: Understanding and Overcoming User Feedback Barriers in Conversational Agentscited by 4
  33. 2026Auditing Preferences for Brands and Cultures in LLMscited by 4
  34. 2026Steering LLMs for Culturally Localized Generationcited by 4
  35. 2024Surveying Attitudinal Alignment Between Large Language Models Vs. Humans Towards 17 Sustainable Development Goalscited by 3
  36. 2024A Survey on Moral Foundation Theory and Pre-Trained Language Models: Current Advances and Challengescited by 3
  37. 2024Missing Melodies: AI Music Generation and its "Nearly" Complete Omission of the Global Southcited by 3
  38. 2025Rethinking AI Cultural Alignmentcited by 3

50 most cited of 149 All 149 (JSON)

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025The American Ghost in the Machine: How language models align culturally and the effects of cultural prompting
  2. 2025DeepSeek's WEIRD Behavior: The cultural alignment of Large Language Models and the effects of prompt language and cultural prompting
  3. 2025Cultural Value Alignment in Large Language Models: A Prompt-based Analysis of Schwartz Values in Gemini, ChatGPT, and DeepSeek
  4. 2026Aligned but Flattened: Analyzing the Trade-off between Cultural Alignment and Diversity in LLMs
  5. 2025Cultural Bias in Large Language Models: Evaluating AI Agents through Moral Questionnaires
  6. 2023Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models: An Explanatory Analysis Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions
  7. 2024Navigating the Cultural Kaleidoscope: A Hitchhiker's Guide to Sensitivity in Large Language Models
  8. 2025Identity-Aware Large Language Models require Cultural Reasoning