C004 — Assessment¶


Research	R0057 — RLHF Yes-Men Claims v3
Run	2026-04-01
Claim	C004

BLUF¶

Confirmed. Multiple studies demonstrate that data-level interventions reduce sycophancy. Shapira et al. derive a closed-form agreement penalty as a minimal reward correction. Wei et al. show synthetic data reduces sycophancy 4.7-10%.

Probability¶

Rating: Very likely (80-95%)

Confidence in assessment: High

Confidence rationale: Multiple independent research teams demonstrate the same principle: changing the data changes the behavior.

Reasoning Chain¶

Shapira et al. propose a training-time intervention that neutralizes sycophancy amplification through a minimal reward correction derived as a closed-form agreement penalty. Wei et al. demonstrate that synthetic non-sycophantic data reduces sycophancy by 4.7-10%. [SRC01-E01, High reliability, High relevance]
JUDGMENT: Confirmed. Multiple studies demonstrate that data-level interventions reduce sycophancy. Shapira et al. derive a closed-form agreement penalty as a minimal reward correction. Wei et al. show synthetic data reduces sycophancy 4.7-10%.

Evidence Base Summary¶

Source	Description	Reliability	Relevance	Key Finding
SRC01	Shapira et al. (2026) and Wei et al. (2023) — data-level sycophancy interventions	High	High	Data-level interventions (anti-sycophancy pairs, synthetic data) reduce sycophancy without algorithmic changes

Collection Synthesis¶

Dimension	Assessment
Evidence quality	High
Source agreement	High
Source independence	Medium
Outliers	None identified

Detail¶

The evidence supports the assessment. Multiple independent research teams demonstrate the same principle: changing the data changes the behavior.

Gaps¶

Missing Evidence	Impact on Assessment
Additional independent verification	Would strengthen confidence

Researcher Bias Check¶

Declared biases: Anti-sycophancy bias could influence interpretation toward confirming sycophancy claims.

Influence assessment: Mitigated by reliance on peer-reviewed and primary sources.

Cross-References¶

Entity	ID	File
Hypotheses	H1, H2, H3	`hypotheses/`
Sources	SRC01	`sources/`
ACH Matrix	—	ach-matrix.md
Self-Audit	—	self-audit.md