ML-EAT: A Multilevel Embedding Association Test for Interpretable and Transparent Social Science

TL;DR

ML-EAT introduces a multilevel, interpretable approach to measuring bias in language models, providing detailed insights into bias patterns and improving transparency in social science applications.

Contribution

The paper presents ML-EAT, a novel multilevel embedding association test that enhances interpretability and transparency of bias measurement in language models.

Findings

EAT patterns reveal component biases in embeddings

Prompting effects are observable in zero-shot models

EAT-Maps visualize bias patterns effectively

Abstract

This research introduces the Multilevel Embedding Association Test (ML-EAT), a method designed for interpretable and transparent measurement of intrinsic bias in language technologies. The ML-EAT addresses issues of ambiguity and difficulty in interpreting the traditional EAT measurement by quantifying bias at three levels of increasing granularity: the differential association between two target concepts with two attribute concepts; the individual effect size of each target concept with two attribute concepts; and the association between each individual target concept and each individual attribute concept. Using the ML-EAT, this research defines a taxonomy of EAT patterns describing the nine possible outcomes of an embedding association test, each of which is associated with a unique EAT-Map, a novel four-quadrant visualization for interpreting the ML-EAT. Empirical analysis of static and diachronic word embeddings, GPT-2 language models, and a CLIP language-and-image model shows that EAT patterns add otherwise unobservable information about the component biases that make up an EAT; reveal the effects of prompting in zero-shot models; and can also identify situations when cosine similarity is an ineffective metric, rendering an EAT unreliable. Our work contributes a method for rendering bias more observable and interpretable, improving the transparency of computational investigations into human minds and societies.