Masoud, RI;
Liu, Z;
Ferianc, M;
Treleaven, P;
Rodrigues, M;
(2025)
Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models: An Explanatory Analysis Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions.
In:
Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics.
(pp. pp. 8474-8503).
Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)
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Abstract
The deployment of large language models (LLMs) raises concerns regarding their cultural misalignment and potential ramifications on individuals and societies with diverse cultural backgrounds. While the discourse has focused mainly on political and social biases, our research proposes a Cultural Alignment Test (Hoftede’s CAT) to quantify cultural alignment using Hofstede’s cultural dimension framework, which offers an explanatory cross-cultural comparison through the latent variable analysis. We apply our approach to quantitatively evaluate LLMs—namely Llama 2, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4—against the cultural dimensions of regions like the United States, China, and Arab countries, using different prompting styles and exploring the effects of language-specific fine-tuning on the models’ behavioural tendencies and cultural values. Our results quantify the cultural alignment of LLMs and reveal the difference between LLMs in explanatory cultural dimensions. Our study demonstrates that while all LLMs struggle to grasp cultural values, GPT-4 shows a unique capability to adapt to cultural nuances, particularly in Chinese settings. However, it faces challenges with American and Arab cultures. The research also highlights that fine-tuning LLama 2 models with different languages changes their responses to cultural questions, emphasizing the need for culturally diverse development in AI for worldwide acceptance and ethical use. For more details or to contribute to this research, visit our GitHub page https://github.com/reemim/Hofstedes_CAT
| Type: | Proceedings paper |
|---|---|
| Title: | Cultural Alignment in Large Language Models: An Explanatory Analysis Based on Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions |
| Event: | 31st International Conference on Computational Linguistics |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://aclanthology.org/2025.coling-main.567/ |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | ACL materials are Copyright © 1963–2025 ACL; other materials are copyrighted by their respective copyright holders. Materials prior to 2016 here are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 International License. Permission is granted to make copies for the purposes of teaching and research. Materials published in or after 2016 are licensed on a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Computer Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10206339 |
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