Skip to content

R0057/2026-04-01/C021 — Assessment
Research R0057 — RLHF Yes-Men Claims v3
Run 2026-04-01
Claim C021

BLUF

Confirmed. The vocabulary split is well-documented. AI safety/ML research uses 'sycophancy'; human factors engineering, aviation, and healthcare use 'automation bias', 'automation complacency', 'overtrust', and 'overreliance'. The terms describe overlapping phenomena from different perspectives.

Probability

Rating: Very likely (80-95%)

Confidence in assessment: High

Confidence rationale: Well-documented across multiple disciplines with decades of literature.

Reasoning Chain

  1. Multiple academic sources document that 'sycophancy' is an AI/ML term while 'automation bias' and 'automation complacency' are human factors terms. Parasuraman and Manzey (2010) established the human factors vocabulary. Recent papers note that LLM sycophancy can exacerbate automation bias, connecting the two phenomena. [SRC01-E01, High reliability, High relevance]

  2. JUDGMENT: Confirmed. The vocabulary split is well-documented. AI safety/ML research uses 'sycophancy'; human factors engineering, aviation, and healthcare use 'automation bias', 'automation complacency', 'overtrust', and 'overreliance'. The terms describe overlapping phenomena from different perspectives.

Evidence Base Summary

Source Description Reliability Relevance Key Finding
SRC01 Literature on automation bias and sycophancy terminology High High AI safety uses sycophancy; human factors uses automation bias/complacency/overtrust — overlapping phenomena with different vocabulary

Collection Synthesis

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

Detail

The evidence supports the assessment. Well-documented across multiple disciplines with decades of literature.

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