mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Towards Reliable Evaluation of Behavior Steering Interventions in LLMs

arXiv 2410.17245 ↗First posted 22 Oct 2024cs.AI cs.CLcited by 36

On the map: Mechanistic interpretability → Activation steering methods

Abstract (arXiv)

Representation engineering methods have recently shown promise for enabling efficient steering of model behavior. However, evaluation pipelines for these methods have primarily relied on subjective demonstrations, instead of quantitative, objective metrics. We aim to take a step towards addressing this issue by advocating for four properties missing from current evaluations: (i) contexts sufficiently similar to downstream tasks should be used for assessing intervention quality; (ii) model likelihoods should be accounted for; (iii) evaluations should allow for standardized comparisons across different target behaviors; and (iv) baseline comparisons should be offered. We introduce an evaluation pipeline grounded in these criteria, offering both a quantitative and visual analysis of how effectively a given method works. We use this pipeline to evaluate two representation engineering methods on how effectively they can steer behaviors such as truthfulness and corrigibility, finding that some interventions are less effective than previously reported.

Key facts. Cited by 36 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Activation steering methods, one of 13 directions in Mechanistic interpretability. Builds on 20 of its 24 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 22 Oct 2024.

Builds on

20 of 24 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Analyzing the Generalization and Reliability of Steering Vectors17 Jul
  2. 2023Steering Llama 2 via Contrastive Activation Addition9 Dec

Other references · 18

  1. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  2. 2019PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Librarycited by 20,305
  3. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,396
  4. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 14,132
  5. 2022PaLM: Scaling Language Modeling with Pathwayscited by 5,326
  6. 2023Universal and Transferable Adversarial Attacks on Aligned Language Modelscited by 3,104
  7. 2019The Curious Case of Neural Text Degenerationcited by 2,916
  8. 2023Jailbroken: How Does LLM Safety Training Fail?cited by 1,651
  9. 2023Representation Engineering: A Top-Down Approach to AI Transparencycited by 1,336
  10. 2023Inference-Time Intervention: Eliciting Truthful Answers from a Language Modelcited by 1,302
  11. 2020RealToxicityPrompts: Evaluating Neural Toxic Degeneration in Language Modelscited by 1,255
  12. 2019Universal Adversarial Triggers for Attacking and Analyzing NLPcited by 722
6 more
  1. 2019The Woman Worked as a Babysitter: On Biases in Language Generationcited by 541
  2. 2023Are aligned neural networks adversarially aligned?cited by 315
  3. 2023Function Vectors in Large Language Modelscited by 308
  4. 2024A Mechanistic Understanding of Alignment Algorithms: A Case Study on DPO and Toxicitycited by 185
  5. 2023Mechanistically analyzing the effects of fine-tuning on procedurally defined taskscited by 115
  6. 2021Conditional probing: measuring usable information beyond a baselinecited by 62

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 1; 2025: 15; 2026: 20.

36 papers.

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  1. 2025AxBench: Steering LLMs? Even Simple Baselines Outperform Sparse Autoencoderscited by 218
  2. 2024Steering Language Model Refusal with Sparse Autoencoderscited by 95
  3. 2025Understanding (Un)Reliability of Steering Vectors in Language Modelscited by 47
  4. 2025A Unified Understanding and Evaluation of Steering Methodscited by 46
  5. 2025To Steer or Not to Steer? Mechanistic Error Reduction with Abstention for Language Modelscited by 29
  6. 2025Belief Dynamics Reveal the Dual Nature of In-Context Learning and Activation Steeringcited by 29
  7. 2026Manifold Steering Reveals the Shared Geometry of Neural Network Representation and Behaviorcited by 26
  8. 2025Beyond Linear Steering: Unified Multi-Attribute Control for Language Modelscited by 25
  9. 2025Representation Engineering for Large-Language Models: Survey and Research Challengescited by 21
  10. 2025Spilling the Beans: Teaching LLMs to Self-Report Their Hidden Objectivescited by 15
  11. 2026Steering Vector Fields for Context-Aware Inference-Time Control in Large Language Modelscited by 13
  12. 2026The Information Geometry of Softmax: Probing and Steeringcited by 11
24 more
  1. 2025Low-Rank Adapting Models for Sparse Autoencoderscited by 7
  2. 2025What Can We Actually Steer? A Multi-Behavior Study of Activation Controlcited by 6
  3. 2026Prompt-Activation Duality: Improving Activation Steering via Attention-Level Interventionscited by 6
  4. 2025Interpretable Safety Alignment via SAE-Constructed Low-Rank Subspace Adaptationcited by 5
  5. 2026Activation Steering for Aligned Open-ended Generation without Sacrificing Coherencecited by 4
  6. 2025Transmuting prompts into weightscited by 3
  7. 2026Mind the Performance Gap: Capability-Behavior Trade-offs in Feature Steeringcited by 3
  8. 2026How Controllable Are Large Language Models? A Unified Evaluation across Behavioral Granularitiescited by 3
  9. 2025Beyond Multiple Choice: Evaluating Steering Vectors for Summarizationcited by 2
  10. 2025Steering Language Models in Multi-Token Generation: A Case Study on Tense and Aspectcited by 2
  11. 2026Steer Model beyond Assistant: Controlling System Prompt Strength via Contrastive Decodingcited by 2
  12. 2026Detecting and Controlling Sycophancy with Cascading Linear Featurescited by 2
  13. 2026Adversarial Robustness of Activation Steering in Large Language Modelscited by 1
  14. 2026What Does Activation Steering Control? Attribution Across Answer Encodings and Output-Sensitive Subspacescited by 1
  15. 2026SteerCheck: Attribution Specificity and Alignment Leakage in Activation-Steering Auditscited by 1
  16. 2026Latent space bias directions in LLMs capture confidence, not fairnesscited by 1
  17. 2025Fine-Grained Interpretation of Political Opinions in Large Language Modelscited by 0
  18. 2026Steering grids for sparse-autoencoder features: when a top-context label names an activation regime rather than a causal axiscited by 0
  19. 2026Probabilistic Concept-Aware Steering for Trustworthy LLM Inferencecited by 0
  20. 2026Predictive Memory Localization: Forecasting Selective Intervention Paths from Internal Signalscited by 0
  21. 2026A Unifying Perspective on Language Model Representations: From Filler-Role Structure to Mechanistic Interpretabilitycited by 0
  22. 2026Context-Grounding Gains Are Mediated by Pre-existing Machinery: Auditing GRPO, SFT, and DPOcited by 0
  23. 2026Signatures of Steerability in Activation Space of Language Modelscited by 0
  24. 2026When a Conceptor Complement Becomes Gain: Operator Geometry and Behavioral Attribution in Language Modelscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025SteeringSafety: Benchmarking Representation Steering in LLMs Across Safety Perspectives
  2. 2026Does Steering Break Your Model? A Multi-Dimensional Evaluation Suite for LLM Steering Methods
  3. 2026Steered LLM Activations are Non-Surjective
  4. 2026CBMAS: Cognitive Behavioral Modeling via Activation Steering
  5. 2025Psychological Steering in LLMs: An Evaluation of Effectiveness and Trustworthiness
  6. 2026Representational Control over Self-Report & Behavior Coherence in LLM Risk-Taking
  7. 2026A Low-Rank Subspace Analysis of LLM Interventions
  8. 2026Steering Geometry: Validating Human Value Geometry in LLM Steering Space