mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

When Truth Is Overridden: Uncovering the Internal Origins of Sycophancy in Large Language Models

arXiv 2508.02087 ↗First posted 4 Aug 2025cs.CLcited by 50

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Abstract (arXiv)

Large Language Models (LLMs) often exhibit sycophantic behavior, agreeing with user-stated opinions even when those contradict factual knowledge. While prior work has documented this tendency, the internal mechanisms that enable such behavior remain poorly understood. In this paper, we provide a mechanistic account of how sycophancy arises within LLMs. We first systematically study how user opinions induce sycophancy across different model families. We find that simple opinion statements reliably induce sycophancy, whereas user expertise framing has a negligible impact. Through logit-lens analysis and causal activation patching, we identify a two-stage emergence of sycophancy: (1) a late-layer output preference shift and (2) deeper representational divergence. We also verify that user authority fails to influence behavior because models do not encode it internally. In addition, we examine how grammatical perspective affects sycophantic behavior, finding that first-person prompts (``I believe...'') consistently induce higher sycophancy rates than third-person framings (``They believe...'') by creating stronger representational perturbations in deeper layers. These findings highlight that sycophancy is not a surface-level artifact but emerges from a structural override of learned knowledge in deeper layers, with implications for alignment and truthful AI systems.

Key facts. Cited by 50 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 32 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Aug 2025.

Builds on

32 of 55 references.

References · 32

  1. 2022Training language models to follow instructions with human feedbackcited by 15,971
  2. 2024The Llama 3 Herd of Modelscited by 14,715
  3. 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 8,065
  4. 2020Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understandingcited by 7,963
  5. 2022OPT: Open Pre-trained Transformer Language Modelscited by 3,512
  6. 2022Locating and Editing Factual Associations in GPTcited by 2,691
  7. 2020Learning to summarize from human feedbackcited by 2,588
  8. 2022Interpretability in the Wild: a Circuit for Indirect Object Identification in GPT-2 smallcited by 1,165
  9. 2023Steering Llama 2 via Contrastive Activation Additioncited by 1,085
  10. 2019BERT Rediscovers the Classical NLP Pipelinecited by 1,059
  11. 2023Towards Understanding Sycophancy in Language Modelscited by 1,040
  12. 2022Discovering Language Model Behaviors with Model-Written Evaluationscited by 836
20 more
  1. 2020A Primer in BERTology: What we know about how BERT workscited by 815
  2. 2023Open Problems and Fundamental Limitations of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedbackcited by 759
  3. 2025Reasoning Models Don't Always Say What They Thinkcited by 415
  4. 2023In-Context Learning Creates Task Vectorscited by 312
  5. 2024OLMoE: Open Mixture-of-Experts Language Modelscited by 301
  6. 2024Sycophancy in Large Language Models: Causes and Mitigationscited by 101
  7. 2024From Yes-Men to Truth-Tellers: Addressing Sycophancy in Large Language Models with Pinpoint Tuningcited by 54
  8. 2025Understanding Aha Moments: from External Observations to Internal Mechanismscited by 50
  9. 2023Characterizing Mechanisms for Factual Recall in Language Modelscited by 48
  10. 2024Locate-then-edit for Multi-hop Factual Recall under Knowledge Editingcited by 37
  11. 2025Understanding the Repeat Curse in Large Language Models from a Feature Perspectivecited by 37
  12. 2025Curriculum-RLAIF: Curriculum Alignment with Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedbackcited by 32
  13. 2025EAP-GP: Mitigating Saturation Effect in Gradient-based Automated Circuit Identificationcited by 21
  14. 2025Flattery in Motion: Benchmarking and Analyzing Sycophancy in Video-LLMscited by 21
  15. 2024Accounting for Sycophancy in Language Model Uncertainty Estimationcited by 18
  16. 2024A Hopfieldian View-based Interpretation for Chain-of-Thought Reasoningcited by 15
  17. 2025Towards User-level Private Reinforcement Learning with Human Feedbackcited by 14
  18. 2025Understanding How Value Neurons Shape the Generation of Specified Values in LLMscited by 13
  19. 2025Understanding and Mitigating Cross-lingual Privacy Leakage via Language-specific and Universal Privacy Neuronscited by 13
  20. 2025Mechanistic Unveiling of Transformer Circuits: Self-Influence as a Key to Model Reasoningcited by 11

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 5; 2026: 45.

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  1. 2025Sycophancy Is Not One Thing: Causal Separation of Sycophantic Behaviors in LLMscited by 37
  2. 2025When Identity Skews Debate: Anonymization for Bias-Reduced Multi-Agent Reasoningcited by 21
  3. 2026Sycophantic Chatbots Cause Delusional Spiraling, Even in Ideal Bayesianscited by 21
  4. 2025Adaptive Multi-Subspace Representation Steering for Attribute Alignment in Large Language Modelscited by 16
  5. 2026Ask don't tell: Reducing sycophancy in large language modelscited by 14
  6. 2026A Rational Analysis of the Effects of Sycophantic AIcited by 12
  7. 2026MemSyco-Bench: Benchmarking Sycophancy in Agent Memorycited by 12
  8. 2026LLMs Know They're Wrong and Agree Anyway: The Shared Sycophancy-Lying Circuitcited by 10
  9. 2026A Mechanistic View of Authority Hierarchy in LLM Sycophancycited by 9
  10. 2026Good Arguments Against the People Pleasers: How Reasoning Mitigates (Yet Masks) LLM Sycophancycited by 8
  11. 2026Dissociating the Internal Representations of Sycophancy in LLMscited by 6
  12. 2025Benchmarking and Mitigating Sycophancy in Medical Vision Language Modelscited by 5
38 more
  1. 2026Personalization Increases Affective Alignment but Has Role-Dependent Effects on Epistemic Independence in LLMscited by 5
  2. 2026Recalling Too Well: Sycophancy Evaluation and Mitigation in Memory-Augmented Modelscited by 4
  3. 2026Visual Self-Fulfilling Alignment: Shaping Safety-Oriented Personas via Threat-Related Imagescited by 3
  4. 2026The Price of Agreement: Measuring LLM Sycophancy in Agentic Financial Applicationscited by 3
  5. 2026Not Just RLHF: Why Alignment Alone Won't Fix Multi-Agent Sycophancycited by 3
  6. 2026Affective Context Amplifies Sycophancy in LLM Responsescited by 3
  7. 2026When AI Persuades: Adversarial Explanation Attacks on Human Trust in AI-Assisted Decision Makingcited by 2
  8. 2026Word Recovery in Large Language Models Enables Character-Level Tokenization Robustnesscited by 2
  9. 2026Intersectional Sycophancy: How Perceived User Demographics Shape False Validation in Large Language Modelscited by 2
  10. 2026Authority Bias in Language Models: Source Deference and User Agreement Are Not Interchangeablecited by 2
  11. 2025Making LLMs Reliable When It Matters Most: A Five-Layer Architecture for High-Stakes Decisionscited by 1
  12. 2026Faithful-Patchscopes: Understanding and Mitigating Model Bias in Hidden Representations Explanation of Large Language Modelscited by 1
  13. 2026Simulated Adoption: Decoupling Magnitude and Direction in LLM In-Context Conflict Resolutioncited by 1
  14. 2026Trust, but Don't Verify: Epistemic Blind Spots in LLM Source Evaluationcited by 1
  15. 2026Who Flips? Self- and Cross-Model Counterarguments Reveal Answer Instability in LLMscited by 1
  16. 2026Escape from Delusional Echo Trap: Symmetry Breaking, Stochastic Dynamics and Mathematical Mitigation Strategies for Algorithmic Sycophancycited by 1
  17. 2026Resist and Update: Counterfactual Report Coordinates for Incentive-Compatible LLMscited by 1
  18. 2026One Axis, No Brake: Self-Knowledge Limits the Filtering of Harmful Peer Conformity in LLMscited by 1
  19. 2026Are You Sure You're Sure? Two Confounds in a Sycophancy Benchmarkcited by 1
  20. 2026Feedback Indices to Evaluate LLM Responses to Rebuttals for Multiple Choice Type Questionscited by 0
  21. 2026The Company You Keep: How LLMs Respond to Dark Triad Traitscited by 0
  22. 2026Stable Reasoning, Unstable Responses: Mitigating LLM Deception via Stability Asymmetrycited by 0
  23. 2026When Helpfulness Becomes Sycophancy: Sycophancy is a Boundary Failure Between Social Alignment and Epistemic Integrity in Large Language Modelscited by 0
  24. 2026Can LLMs Emulate Human Belief Dynamics?cited by 0
  25. 2026Multi-Adapter Representation Interventions via Energy Calibrationcited by 0
  26. 2026Auditing Framing-Sensitive Behavioral Instability in Large Language Models for Mental Health Interactionscited by 0
  27. 2026From Plausible to Actionable: A Position on LLM Self-Explanationscited by 0
  28. 2026Semi-Automated Detection of Gaps in LLM Security Knowledgecited by 0
  29. 2026Measuring and Detecting Harmful AI Sycophancycited by 0
  30. 2026Mitigating LLM sycophancy with RL-based fine-tuning: Bayesian Truth Serum approachcited by 0
  31. 2026How Do Language Models Choose Between Context and Memory?cited by 0
  32. 2026Caught in the Story: Narrative Captivity in Multi-turn LLMs Conversationcited by 0
  33. 2026No Usable Linear "Capitulation Direction" in Two Small LLMs: A Validation Protocol for Activation-Steering Claims, and a Cross-Family Behavioral Study of Sycophancy Under Pushbackcited by 0
  34. 2026From Trait Vectors to Circuits: Tracing Refusal and Sycophancy Through Language Modelscited by 0
  35. 2026Tracing mechanisms of sycophantic agreement in language modelscited by 0
  36. 2026Defense-in-Depth for LLMs: Evaluating Memory Gates Against Activation-Induced and Memory-Induced Sycophancycited by 0
  37. 2026Beyond the Sycophancy Score: How Task, Model, and Pressure Shape LLM Yieldingcited by 0
  38. 2026Pushback in a Haystack: Language Models Respond to Factual Errors Ambiguously and Ineffectivelycited by 0

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  1. 2026Agentic Scaffolding Amplifies Sycophantic Behavior in Large Language Models
  2. 2026Too Polite to Disagree: Understanding Sycophancy Propagation in Multi-Agent Systems
  3. 2025Measuring Sycophancy of Language Models in Multi-turn Dialogues
  4. 2023Simple synthetic data reduces sycophancy in large language models
  5. 2025Internal Reasoning vs. External Control: A Thermodynamic Analysis of Sycophancy in Large Language Models
  6. 2026It's Not Always Sycophancy: Measuring LLM Conformity as a Function of Epistemic Uncertainty
  7. 2025Sycophancy under Pressure: Evaluating and Mitigating Sycophantic Bias via Adversarial Dialogues in Scientific QA
  8. 2026Sycophancy as a Multilingual Alignment Failure: How Safety Degrades Across Languages, Topics, and Models