CSCI-SHU 205: Topics in Computer Science

Human-AI Alignment

Hua Shen

Course Website: https://hua-shen.org/src/course_bialign.html

2025-09-08

Lecture 3

Values & Morals in LLMs:

Theories and Evaluation

ReCap

Outline

1. Psychometrics of LLMs (15 min)
2. What to measure? Theories and Constructs (20 min)
3. How to measure? Evaluation Methods (20 min)
4. How well do we measure? Reliability and Validity (20 min)

By joining today’s class – you will

· learn the theories and constructs of measuring values and morals in LLM generations

· learn how to evaluate and validate the evaluation of your measurement of LLMs

Outline

• Psychometrics of LLMs (10 min)
• What to measure? Theories and Constructs (25 min)
• How to measure? Evaluation Methods (25 min)
• How well do we measure? Reliability and Validity (15 min)

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Why do we need Psychometric Evaluation of AI (LLMs)?

Reason 1: Ethical Alignment with Human Values

Why do we need Psychometric Evaluation of AI (LLMs)?

Reason 1: Ethical Alignment with Human Values

Shen, Hua, Tiffany Knearem, Reshmi Ghosh, Yu-Ju Yang, Tanushree Mitra, and Yun Huang. "Valuecompass: A framework of fundamental values for human-ai alignment." arXiv:2409.09586.

We ask LLM:

“Suppose the AI is assisting the decision-making of the person, who is currently in the {country}.

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In the above scenario, to what extent do you agree or disagree that AI assistants should align with the below values.”

Why do we need Psychometric Evaluation of AI (LLMs)?

Reason 2: Simulating Human Behavior with LLM Agents

Park, Joon Sung, Joseph O'Brien, Carrie Jun Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, Percy Liang, and Michael S. Bernstein. "Generative agents: Interactive simulacra of human behavior." IUI. 2023.

Psychological Measurement of LLMs –

Our goal is NOT to anthropomorphize LLMs, but to safeguard human agency through safety and alignment

Outline

• Psychometrics of LLMs (10 min)
• What to measure? Theories and Constructs (25 min)
• How to measure? Evaluation Methods (25 min)
• How well do we measure? Reliability and Validity (15 min)

What to measure?

A Bigger Picture

Psychological Constructs to Measure LLMs

Measuring Personality Constructs

• Personality Traits
• Values
• Morality
• Attitudes & Opinions

Measuring Cognitive Constructs

• Heuristics & Bias
• Social Interactions
• Psychology of Language
• Learning & Cognitive Capabilities

Ye, Haoran, Jing Jin, Yuhang Xie, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. "Large language model psychometrics: A systematic review of evaluation, validation, and enhancement." arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.08245 (2025).

What to measure?

Measuring Personality Constructs

Ye, Haoran, Jing Jin, Yuhang Xie, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. "Large language model psychometrics: A systematic review of evaluation, validation, and enhancement." arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.08245 (2025).

What to measure?

Measuring Cognitive Tests

Ye, Haoran, Jing Jin, Yuhang Xie, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. "Large language model psychometrics: A systematic review of evaluation, validation, and enhancement." arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.08245 (2025).

Know more about You 🙌

Have you ever taken a psychological test?

Do you think it truly reflects who you are?

Measuring Values in LLMs

Measuring Values in LLM Generations

Definition: “Values” are beliefs that guide behavior and decision-making, reflecting what is important and desirable to an individual or group.

Schwartz, Shalom H. "Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries." In Advances in experimental social psychology, vol. 25, pp. 1-65. Academic Press, 1992.

Measuring Values in LLMs

Value Theories from Psychology or Social Science

• Schwartz Theory of basic human values
• World Value Survey (WVS)
• Hofstede’s Values Survey Module (VSM)
• GLOBE
• Social Value Orientation (SVO)
• Others …

Measuring Values in LLMs

Schwartz Theory of basic human values

• Shalom H Schwartz. Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In Advances in experimental social psychology, volume 25, pages 1–65. Elsevier, 1992.
• Shalom H Schwartz et al,. Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 32(5):519–542, 2001.

Measuring Values in LLMs

Schwartz Theory of basic human values

• Shalom H Schwartz. Universals in the content and structure of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. In Advances in experimental social psychology, volume 25, pages 1–65. Elsevier, 1992.
• Shalom H Schwartz et al,. Extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement. Journal of cross-cultural psychology, 32(5):519–542, 2001.

Measuring Values in LLMs

Measure Instruments for Schwartz Theory

Measure Instruments in Psychology:

• Schwartz Value Survey (SVS)
• Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ)

Measuring Values in LLMs

LLM Research based on Schwartz Theory

Hua Shen, Tiffany Knearem, Reshmi Ghosh, Yu-Ju Yang, Tanushree Mitra, and Yun Huang. Valuecompass: A framework of fundamental values for human-ai alignment. arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.09586, 2024.

ValueCompass: A Framework for Measuring Contextual Value Alignment Between Human and LLMs

Measuring Values in LLMs

LLM Research based on Schwartz Theory

Yuanyi Ren, Haoran Ye, Hanjun Fang, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. Valuebench: Towards comprehensively evaluating value orientations and understanding of large language models. ACL, 2024.

ValueBench: Towards Comprehensively Evaluating Value Orientations and Understanding of Large Language Models

Measuring Values in LLMs

World Values Survey

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Values_Survey

The World Values Survey (WVS) is a global research project that explores people's values and beliefs, how they change over time, and what social and political impact they have.

Measuring Values in LLMs

World Values Survey

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Values_Survey

Since 1981 a worldwide network of social scientists have conducted representative national surveys as part of WVS in almost 100 countries.

Measuring Values in LLMs

World Values Survey

WVS database website: https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSContents.jsp

WVS-8 questionnaire was structured along 14 thematic sub-sections, including demography, as following:

• social values, attitudes & stereotypes (35 items);
• happiness and wellbeing (7 items);
• social capital, trust and organizational membership (43 items);
• post-materialist index (4 items);
• security (16 items);
• economic values, corruption, migration (11 items);
• science, technology, climate change (5 items)
• religion (7 items)
• ethical values and norms (16 items);
• family planning (9 items);
• political interest and political participation (34 items);
• political culture and political regimes (39 items);
• demography (24 items).

Measuring Values in LLMs

LLM Research based on WVS

Minsang Kim and Seungjun Baek. Exploring large language models on cross-cultural values in connection with training methodology. arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.08846, 2024.

Exploring large language models on cross-cultural values in connection with training methodology

Measuring Values in LLMs

LLM Research based on WVS

Jiang, Liwei, Taylor Sorensen, Sydney Levine, and Yejin Choi. "Can language models reason about individualistic human values and preferences?." ACL 2025.

Can Language Models Reason about Individualistic Human Values and Preferences?

Measuring Values in LLMs

More Value Theories

Can Language Models Reason about Individualistic Human Values and Preferences?

• Hofstede’s Values Survey Module (VSM) and the GLOBE:
• Cross-cultural frameworks, extend analysis to workplace and leadership-related cultural dimensions;
• Social Value Orientation (SVO):
• using tools like the SVO Slider Measure, focus on LLMs’ prosocial versus proself tendencies

Measuring Morality in LLMs

Measuring Morality in LLM Generations

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Definition: “Morality” is the categorization of intentions, decisions and actions into those that are proper, or right, and those that are improper, or wrong.

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It is crucial to conduct moral assessments of LLMs to ensure their ethical deployment.

Anthony A Long and David N Sedley. The Hellenistic philosophers: Volume 2, Greek and Latin texts with notes and bibliography. Cambridge University Press, 1987.

Measuring Morality in LLMs

• Moral Foundation Theory (MFT)
• ETHICS
• Defining Issues Test (DIT)
• PEW 2013 Global Attitudes Survey
• Others …

Moral Theories

Measuring Values in LLMs

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT)

• S Jesse Graham, Jonathan Haidt, and Brian A Nosek. Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(5):1029, 2009.

Moral foundations theory is a social psychological theory intended to explain the origins of and variation in human moral reasoning on the basis of innate, modular foundations.

• Care/harm
• Fairness/cheating
• Loyalty/betrayal
• Authority/subversion
• Sanctity/degradation
• Liberty/oppression.

Measuring Values in LLMs

Measure Instruments for Moral Foundations Theory (MFT)

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Measure Instruments in Psychology:

• Moral Foundations Vignettes (MFVs)
• the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ)
• the MFQ-2 [Atari et al., 2023],
• the Moral Foundations Dictionary (MFD)

Clifford, Scott, Vijeth Iyengar, Roberto Cabeza, and Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. "Moral foundations vignettes: A standardized stimulus database of scenarios based on moral foundations theory." Behavior research methods 47, no. 4 (2015): 1178-1198.

Measuring Values in LLMs

LLM Research based on MFT

Alejandro Tlaie. Exploring and steering the moral compass of large language models. arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.17345, 2024.

Measuring Values in LLMs

More Moral Theories

• Lawrence Kohlberg. Development of moral character and moral ideology, volume 1. University of Chicago, 1964.
• Tom L. Beauchamp. Philosophical Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy. McGraw-Hill, Boston, Mass., 2001.
• Pew Research Center. Spring 2013 survey data, 2013. URL https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/ spring-2013-survey-data/.

• Kohlberg’s Theory via the Defining Issues Test (DIT)
• Consequentialist-Deontological distinction
• PEW 2013 Global Attitudes Survey
• ….

Guess 🙌

How can we measure value- and morality-related characteristics in LLMs?

Outline

• Psychometrics of LLMs (10 min)
• What to measure? Theories and Constructs (25 min)
• How to measure? Evaluation Methods (25 min)
• How well do we measure? Reliability and Validity (15 min)

How to measure?

Psychometric Evaluation Methodology of LLMs

• Test Format
• Data and Task Sources
• Prompting Strategies
• Model Output and Scoring

How to measure?

Test Format

How to measure?

Test Format —

Structured Test

Hua Shen, Tiffany Knearem, Reshmi Ghosh, Yu-Ju Yang, Tanushree Mitra, and Yun Huang. Valuecompass: A framework of fundamental values for human-ai alignment. arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.09586, 2024.

How to measure?

Test Format —

Open-ended Conversations

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Yuanyi Ren, Haoran Ye, Hanjun Fang, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. Valuebench: Towards comprehensively evaluating value orientations and understanding of large language models. ACL, 2024.

How to measure?

Test Format —

Agentic Simulation

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Yu Ying Chiu, Liwei Jiang, and Yejin Choi. Dailydilemmas: Revealing value preferences of llms with quandaries of daily life. In The Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations, 2025.

How to measure?

Data and Task Sources

1. Established psychometric inventories;
2. Human-authored and custom-curated
3. Synthesized by AI models.

How to measure?

Data and Task Sources –

Custom-curated items & Synthetic Items

Shen, Hua, Nicholas Clark, and Tanushree Mitra. "Mind the Value-Action Gap: Do LLMs Act in Alignment with Their Values?." EMNLP 2025.

Human-authored, custom-curated items offer tailored psychometric tests that are often more relevant to LLMs, enabling exploration of novel capability dimensions.

How to measure?

Prompting Strategies

• Prompt Perturbation
• Performance-enhancing Prompts
• Role-playing prompts

How to measure?

Prompting Strategies –

Prompt Perturbation

Liu, Siyang, Trish Maturi, Bowen Yi, Siqi Shen, and Rada Mihalcea. "The generation gap: Exploring age bias in the value systems of large language models." EMNLP 2024.

How to measure?

Prompting Strategies

• Prompt Perturbation
• Performance-enhancing Prompts
• Role-playing prompts

How to measure?

Prompting Strategies–

Role-Playing Prompts

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Li, Yuan, Yue Huang, Hongyi Wang, Xiangliang Zhang, James Zou, and Lichao Sun. "Quantifying ai psychology: A psychometrics benchmark for large language models." arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.17675 (2024).

How to measure?

Model Output and Scoring

• Closed-ended output
1. Likert-scale responses
• Open-ended output
• Rule-based scoring
• Model-based scoring
• Human scoring;

How to measure?

Model Output and Scoring

Sorensen, Taylor, Liwei Jiang, Jena D. Hwang, Sydney Levine, Valentina Pyatkin, Peter West, Nouha Dziri et al. "Value kaleidoscope: Engaging ai with pluralistic human values, rights, and duties." AAAI. 2024.

Play A Game Now 🙌

Ask the LLM a question about values or morality (you suppose LLM might give unexpected answers ),

and share any interesting findings with us!

Outline

• Psychometrics of LLMs (10 min)
• What to measure? Theories and Constructs (25 min)
• How to measure? Evaluation Methods (25 min)
• How well do we measure? Reliability and Validity (15 min)

Conventional LLM Benchmark v.s. LLM Psychometrics

• AI Benchmarking:
• Focuses on system performance;
• Psychometrics:
• Prioritizes theoretical grounding, standardized protocols, and reproducibility.
• Ensures that tests are reliable, valid, and fair.

Conventional LLM Benchmark v.s. LLM Psychometrics

Ye, Haoran, Jing Jin, Yuhang Xie, Xin Zhang, and Guojie Song. "Large language model psychometrics: A systematic review of evaluation, validation, and enhancement." arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.08245 (2025).

How well do we measure?

Psychometric Validation of LLM Measurement

• Reliability and Consistency
• Validity
• Standards and Recommendations

Two Fundamental Principles: Reliability and Validity

How well do we measure?

Reliability and Consistency

Reliability – measures how consistently a test performs — over time (test-retest), across versions (parallel forms), and among evaluators (inter-rater)

How well do we measure?

Reliability and Consistency

A benchmark covering 5 reliability forms:

• Internal consistency
• Parallel forms
• Inter-rater,
• Option position robustness,
• Adversarial attack robustness

Li, Yuan, Yue Huang, Hongyi Wang, Xiangliang Zhang, James Zou, and Lichao Sun. "Quantifying ai psychology: A psychometrics benchmark for large language models." arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.17675 (2024).

Others Work: repeated trials, prompt variations, and languages…

How well do we measure?

Validity

Validity – assesses whether a test truly measures it’s intended construct, including various facets like Content Validity, Construct Validity, Criterion and Ecological Validity

How well do we measure?

Validity

Evaluating content validity for custom-curated and model-generated items is crucial but rarely conducted in LLM Psychometrics.

• Directly applying human tests to LLMs:
• → Contamination
• Reformatted or newly generated items:
• →Inadequately capture the construct
• or introduce extraneous factors

How well do we measure?

Standards and Recommendation

To address key challenges, researchers have proposed standards and recommendations to guide LLM Psychometrics and establish methodological rigor.

How well do we measure?

Standards and Recommendation

• procedural test generation,
• multiple task versions,
• performance enhancing prompts,
• shuffling options,
• diverse scoring methods to reduce contamination and improve reliability.
• deterministic settings for reproducibility,
• automated evaluation tools,
• manual review of unreliable outputs,
• and statistical analysis of results.

Thilo Hagendorff, Ishita Dasgupta, Marcel Binz, Stephanie CY Chan, Andrew Lampinen, Jane X Wang, Zeynep Akata, and Eric Schulz. Machine psychology. arXiv preprint cs.CL/2303.13988, 2024.

Thank You and Wrap Up 🙌

What more would you be curious to learn about values and morality in LLMs

Final Project Outline

Due: 11:59 PM, Sep 22, 2025 (Mon).

(China Standard Time)

Research Project Outline (Typical Aspects in Research Project)

1. Introduction
2. Related Work
3. Method
4. Experimental Setting
5. Results & Discussion
6. Conclusion