# ValueScope: Unveiling Implicit Norms and Values via Return Potential Model of Social Interactions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.02472 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02472/

## Key facts

- Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 25 of its 80 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Jul 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
- [BERTScore: Evaluating Text Generation with BERT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.09675/) (2019)
- [DeBERTa: Decoding-enhanced BERT with Disentangled Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.03654/) (2020)
- [Large Language Models Encode Clinical Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.13138/) (2022)
- [Not what you've signed up for: Compromising Real-World LLM-Integrated Applications with Indirect Prompt Injection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12173/) (2023)
- [DialoGPT: Large-Scale Generative Pre-training for Conversational Response Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.00536/) (2019)
- [Ex Machina: Personal Attacks Seen at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.08914/) (2016)
- [Dialogue Response Ranking Training with Large-Scale Human Feedback Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.06978/) (2020)
- [Evaluating Style Transfer for Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.02295/) (2019)
- [Inverse Constitutional AI: Compressing Preferences into Principles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06560/) (2024)
- [Evaluating the Evaluation Metrics for Style Transfer: A Case Study in Multilingual Formality Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.10668/) (2021)
- [Characterizing English Variation across Social Media Communities with BERT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.06820/) (2021)
- [Detecting Community Sensitive Norm Violations in Online Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.04419/) (2021)
- [Exploring ChatGPT for Toxicity Detection in GitHub](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.13105/) (2023)
- [What Makes it Ok to Set a Fire? Iterative Self-distillation of Contexts and Rationales for Disambiguating Defeasible Social and Moral Situations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15431/) (2023)
- [Do Differences in Values Influence Disagreements in Online Discussions?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.15757/) (2023)
- [Making Online Communities 'Better': A Taxonomy of Community Values on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.05152/) (2021)
- [Investigating Human Values in Online Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.14177/) (2024)
- [The Road to Success: Assessing the Fate of Linguistic Innovations in Online Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05838/) (2018)
- [Semantic Variation in Online Communities of Practice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05847/) (2018)
- [Science, AskScience, and BadScience: On the Coexistence of Highly Related Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.07487/) (2016)
- [Counterfactual Probing for the Influence of Affect and Specificity on Intergroup Bias](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16409/) (2023)
- [Measuring Misogyny in Natural Language Generation: Preliminary Results from a Case Study on two Reddit Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.03330/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Controllable Safety Alignment: Inference-Time Adaptation to Diverse Safety Requirements](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08968/) (2024)
- [ALFA: Aligning LLMs to Ask Good Questions A Case Study in Clinical Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14860/) (2025)
- [PrefPalette: Personalized Preference Modeling with Latent Attributes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.13541/) (2025)
- [Out of Style: RAG's Fragility to Linguistic Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.08231/) (2025)
- [SPICA: Retrieving Scenarios for Pluralistic In-Context Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.10912/) (2024)
- [PICACO: Pluralistic In-Context Value Alignment of LLMs via Total Correlation Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16679/) (2025)
- [Social Story Frames: Contextual Reasoning about Narrative Intent and Reception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15925/) (2025)
- [Who's Asking? Simulating Role-Based Questions for Conversational AI Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.16829/) (2025)
- [Algorithmic Behaviors Across Regions: A Geolocation Audit of YouTube Search for COVID-19 Misinformation Between the United States and South Africa](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10168/) (2024)
- [Is Active Persona Inference Necessary for Aligning Small Models to Personal Preferences?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.13257/) (2025)
- [Decoding the Rule Book: Extracting Hidden Moderation Criteria from Reddit Communities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.02926/) (2025)
- [Growth First, Care Second? Tracing the Landscape of LLM Value Preferences in Everyday Dilemmas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.04456/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study introduces ValueScope, a framework leveraging language models to quantify social norms and values within online communities, grounded in social science perspectives on normative structures. We employ ValueScope to dissect and analyze linguistic and stylistic expressions across 13 Reddit communities categorized under gender, politics, science, and finance. Our analysis provides a quantitative foundation showing that even closely related communities exhibit remarkably diverse norms. This diversity supports existing theories and adds a new dimension--community preference--to understanding community interactions. ValueScope not only delineates differing social norms among communities but also effectively traces their evolution and the influence of significant external events like the U.S. presidential elections and the emergence of new sub-communities. The framework thus highlights the pivotal role of social norms in shaping online interactions, presenting a substantial advance in both the theory and application of social norm studies in digital spaces.