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Cited by 17Ethics and Social Impacts of AIPsychology of Moral and Emotional JudgmentEthics in Business and Education

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Are Large Language Models Moral Hypocrites? A Study Based on Moral Foundations

Open access
Nunes, José Luiz, Almeida, Guilherme F. C. F., Araujo, Marcelo de, Barbosa, Simone D. J.·2024·Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society

Abstract

Large language models (LLMs) have taken centre stage in debates on Artificial Intelligence. Yet there remains a gap in how to assess LLMs' conformity to important human values. In this paper, we investigate whether state-of-the-art LLMs, GPT-4 and Claude 2.1 (Gemini Pro and LLAMA 2 did not generate valid results) are moral hypocrites. We employ two research instruments based on the Moral Foundations Theory: (i) the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ), which investigates which values are considered morally relevant in abstract moral judgements; and (ii) the Moral Foundations Vignettes (MFVs), which evaluate moral cognition in concrete scenarios related to each moral foundation. We characterise conflicts in values between these different abstractions of moral evaluation as hypocrisy. We found that both models displayed reasonable consistency within each instrument compared to humans, but they displayed contradictory and hypocritical behaviour when we compared the abstract values present in the MFQ to the evaluation of concrete moral violations of the MFV.

Overview

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TL;DR

The paper tests whether GPT-4 and Claude 2.1 display moral hypocrisy by comparing abstract moral values on the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) with concrete moral judgments on the Moral Foundations Vignettes (MFVs). Both models showed within-instrument consistency comparable to humans, but they failed to show coherence across abstraction levels, which the authors characterize as hypocritical behavior.

Key findings

  • Both models displayed reasonable consistency within each instrument: GPT-4 had α_MFV = 0.72 and α_MFQ = 0.81; Claude 2.1 had α_MFV = 0.91 and α_MFQ = 0.46; human comparison values were α_MFV = 0.87 and α_MFQ = 0.74.
  • Across instruments, the models showed little to no coherent relation between abstract MFQ values and concrete MFV judgments. Most regression models had no significant predictors; when significant, predictors often did not correspond to the matching foundation.
  • Regression coefficients of determination were very low for both LLMs (R² < 0.08, except Claude Loyalty and Liberty with R² ≈ 0.10), compared with human respondents in Clifford et al. (2015), where R² ∈ [0.17, 0.38].
  • The authors conclude that GPT-4 and Claude 2.1 behaved as moral hypocrites in the experiment: consistent within instruments but incoherent between abstract values and concrete moral evaluations.

Methods

  • The study used two Moral Foundations Theory instruments: the MFQ30 for abstract moral values and 68 Moral Foundations Vignettes for concrete moral violations, with human comparison data from Clifford et al. (2015) and Marques et al. (2020).
  • Four state-of-the-art LLMs were initially selected: GPT-4 (gpt-4-0613), Claude 2.1, Gemini Pro, and LLAMA-2-Chat-70b. Only GPT-4 and Claude 2.1 generated valid outputs; Gemini Pro and LLAMA 2 were dropped due to invalid or token-limit-exceeding outputs.
  • The experiment ran two order conditions, VQ (MFV first) and QV (MFQ first), with 100 responses per condition per model. Valid responses were Claude 2.1: QV 99, VQ 59, total 158; GPT-4: QV 100, VQ 89, total 189.
  • Analysis used Cronbach’s α for within-instrument consistency, two-way ANOVAs, and ordinary linear regressions predicting MFV ratings from MFQ measures, following Clifford et al. (2015).

Limitations

  • The paper states that only two commercial LLMs were analyzed, and the open-source LLAMA 2.1 model could not produce valid results under the study’s criteria.
  • The authors note that future work should explore scaling trends, other open models, prompting styles, and temperature settings, since there is no agreed-upon procedure for questionnaire-style prompting and small prompt changes may significantly alter results.
  • The study is based on a single task—answering questionnaires with one prompt structure—so the authors call for future research on different tasks and evaluation methods.
  • Evident from the text: Gemini Pro was discarded after all but three outputs were invalid, and Claude 2.1 showed a large valid-response imbalance between QV and VQ conditions (99 vs. 59), which may affect interpretation.

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Registry

Crossref · 10.1609/aies.v7i1.31704

Cites

55 of 55 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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0 Valid · 1 Not valid · 18 Not checked · 52 Own results and interpretations

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Statistics recomputed

Every reported test result, recomputed from its test statistic and degrees of freedom. A result shows as not adding up only once an independent check has confirmed it.

  • ConsistentF(1, 30) = 27.93reported p < .001 · recomputed p < .001

    “F (1,30) = 27.93,p < .001”

  • ConsistentF(2, 30) = 25.8reported p < .001 · recomputed p < .001

    “F (2,30) = 25.8, p < .001”

2 of 2

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Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

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Citations

Cites

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Research works printed but not linked: 14

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Metadata

Authors
Nunes, J. L., Almeida, G. F. C. F., Araujo, M. D., & Barbosa, S. D. J.
Affiliations
  • Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
  • Insper (BR)
Venue
Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
Published
2024-10-16
Volume
7
Pages
1074-1087
ISSN
3065-8365 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4404518322
Cited by
17
References
16
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 1
FWCI
2.60
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI Ethics and Society (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
  • Open Science Framework
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Ethics in Business and Education
Keywords
large language models, moral hypocrisy, moral foundations, Moral Foundations Questionnaire, GPT-4, Claude 2, value consistency

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