Do as I Say, Not as I Do: Instruction-Induction Conflict in LLMs
Language models are trained to follow instructions, but they are also powerful pattern completers. What happens when these two objectives conflict? We construct conversations in which a user instruction to behave in a target way T (e.g., always output a specific token, answer in a particular language, or adopt a persona) is opposed by N hardcoded assistant turns demonstrating a competing pattern P. We then measure instruction-following (IF) rates in this setting, across 13 models and 16 different instructions, for up to 50 turns. Average instruction-following rates range from 1% to 99% across models, largely uncorrelated with standard capability benchmarks. The transition from instruction...
| Authors | Carolina Camassa, Derek Shiller |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.CL |
| Published | 19 May 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 1 September 2026 |
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