Simulating Identity, Propagating Bias: Abstraction and Stereotypes in LLM-Generated Text

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08484v1
• Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2025 10:49:21 GMT
• Title: Simulating Identity, Propagating Bias: Abstraction and Stereotypes in LLM-Generated Text
• Authors: Pia Sommerauer, Giulia Rambelli, Tommaso Caselli,
• Abstract summary: We investigate whether persona-prompting leads to different levels of linguistic abstraction when generating short texts linking socio-demographic categories with stereotypical or non-stereotypical attributes.<n>Our results confirm criticisms about the ecology of personas as representative of socio-demographic groups and raise concerns about the risk of propagating stereotypes.
• Score: 8.988787218035414
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Abstract: Persona-prompting is a growing strategy to steer LLMs toward simulating particular perspectives or linguistic styles through the lens of a specified identity. While this method is often used to personalize outputs, its impact on how LLMs represent social groups remains underexplored. In this paper, we investigate whether persona-prompting leads to different levels of linguistic abstraction - an established marker of stereotyping - when generating short texts linking socio-demographic categories with stereotypical or non-stereotypical attributes. Drawing on the Linguistic Expectancy Bias framework, we analyze outputs from six open-weight LLMs under three prompting conditions, comparing 11 persona-driven responses to those of a generic AI assistant. To support this analysis, we introduce Self-Stereo, a new dataset of self-reported stereotypes from Reddit. We measure abstraction through three metrics: concreteness, specificity, and negation. Our results highlight the limits of persona-prompting in modulating abstraction in language, confirming criticisms about the ecology of personas as representative of socio-demographic groups and raising concerns about the risk of propagating stereotypes even when seemingly evoking the voice of a marginalized group.

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