Alignment Reduces Expressed but Not Encoded Gender Bias: A Unified Framework and Study
Updated 6 h ago · first seen 11 Sept 2026
paper_01M294G5RWHSFYDP00XE8SWMX0
- Published
- 11 Sept 2026
- T1 · 6 h ago
- arXiv
- 2603.24125
- T1 · 6 h ago
- Category
- cs.CL
- T1 · 6 h ago
Abstract
During training, Large Language Models (LLMs) learn social regularities that can lead to gender bias in downstream applications. Most mitigation efforts focus on reducing bias in generated outputs, typically evaluated on structured benchmarks, which raises two concerns: output-level evaluation does not reveal whether alignment modifies the model's underlying representations, and structured benchmarks may not reflect realistic usage scenarios. We propose a unified framework to jointly analyze intrinsic and extrinsic gender bias in LLMs using identical neutral prompts, enabling direct comparison between gender-related information encoded in internal representations and bias expressed in generated outputs. Contrary to prior work reporting weak or inconsistent correlations, we find a consistent association between latent gender information and expressed bias when measured under the unified protocol. We further examine the effect of alignment through supervised fine-tuning aimed at reducing gender bias. Our results suggest that while the latter indeed reduces expressed bias, measurable gender-related associations are still present in internal representations, and can be reactivated under adversarial prompting. Finally, we consider two realistic settings and show that debiasing effects observed on structured benchmarks do not necessarily generalize, e.g., to the case of story generation.
Authors 6
Nour Bouchouchi, Thibault Laugel, Xavier Renard, Christophe Marsala, Marie-Jeanne Lesot, Marcin Detyniecki
Specification
- Official page
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
- Arxiv announce type
- replace
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
- arXiv id
- 2603.24125
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
- Categories
- cs.CL
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
- Primary category
- cs.CL
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
- Published
- 11 Sept 2026
Source:arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1observed 6 h agohigh
Each value shows its source, tier and observation time. Conflicting claims are kept side by side and flagged — never averaged. How AI Atlas records facts →
Provenance
Attributed facts
9
Source tiers
T19
Freshest observation
6 h ago
Conflicts
None
No models linked to this paper yet.
- Authors
- Nour Bouchouchi, Thibault Laugel, Xavier Renard
As of
Rewind the record: see this entity's attributes exactly as AI Atlas knew them on a given day.
Claim history · Abstract
Abstractabstract1
| Value | Valid from → to | Status | Source | Confidence | Extractor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| During training, Large Language Models (LLMs) learn social regularities that can lead to gender bias in downstream applications. Most mitigation efforts focus on reducing bias in generated outputs, typically evaluated on structured benchmarks, which raises two concerns: output-level evaluation does not reveal whether alignment modifies the model's underlying representations, and structured benchmarks may not reflect realistic usage scenarios. We propose a unified framework to jointly analyze intrinsic and extrinsic gender bias in LLMs using identical neutral prompts, enabling direct comparison between gender-related information encoded in internal representations and bias expressed in generated outputs. Contrary to prior work reporting weak or inconsistent correlations, we find a consistent association between latent gender information and expressed bias when measured under the unified protocol. We further examine the effect of alignment through supervised fine-tuning aimed at reducing gender bias. Our results suggest that while the latter indeed reduces expressed bias, measurable gender-related associations are still present in internal representations, and can be reactivated under adversarial prompting. Finally, we consider two realistic settings and show that debiasing effects observed on structured benchmarks do not necessarily generalize, e.g., to the case of story generation. | → current | current | arXiv (Atom API + RSS)T1 | high | deterministic |
Claims are temporal and append-only: a new observation closes the previous claim (valid_to) instead of overwriting it. Conflicting claims from different sources are kept side by side and flagged — never averaged. Methodology →
- New paperPaperAlignment Reduces Expressed but Not Encoded Gender Bias: A Unified Framework and Study
New paper: Alignment Reduces Expressed but Not Encoded Gender Bias: A Unified Framework and Study
arxiv
| Source | Document | Type | Tier | Last observed | Snapshots |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| arXiv (Atom API + RSS) | rss.arxiv.org/rss/cs.CL | feed | T1· Official | 4 h ago | 1 |
Tier 1 = official/primary, 2 = quality secondary, 3 = community, 4 = unverified. Every snapshot is archived; see all sources and the methodology.