{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4416034323","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","title":"Treble Counterfactual VLMs: A Causal Approach to Hallucination","display_name":"Treble Counterfactual VLMs: A Causal Approach to Hallucination","publication_year":2025,"publication_date":"2025-01-01","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4416034323","doi":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-emnlp.1000.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"conference-paper","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":true,"oa_status":"gold","oa_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-emnlp.1000.pdf","any_repository_has_fulltext":null},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100360969","display_name":"Li Li","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5348-7463"},"institutions":[],"countries":[],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Li Li","raw_affiliation_strings":[],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5058047142","display_name":"Jinping Qu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3803-325X"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I63135867","display_name":"University of Cincinnati","ror":"https://ror.org/01e3m7079","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I63135867"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Jiashu Qu","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Cincinnati"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Cincinnati","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I63135867"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5063505653","display_name":"Linxin Song","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7562-3775"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1174212","display_name":"University of Southern California","ror":"https://ror.org/03taz7m60","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1174212"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I2800817003","display_name":"California Southern University","ror":"https://ror.org/058zz0t50","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Linxin Song","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Southern California"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Southern California","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1174212","https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5011360229","display_name":"Yuxiao Zhou","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6189-2326"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I165932596","display_name":"National University of Singapore","ror":"https://ror.org/01tgyzw49","country_code":"SG","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I165932596"]}],"countries":["SG"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yuxiao Zhou","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Singapore"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Singapore","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I165932596"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5086753428","display_name":"Yuehan Qin","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1174212","display_name":"University of Southern California","ror":"https://ror.org/03taz7m60","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1174212"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I2800817003","display_name":"California Southern University","ror":"https://ror.org/058zz0t50","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yuehan Qin","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Southern California"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Southern California","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1174212","https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5082307043","display_name":"Tiankai Yang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3536-8561"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1174212","display_name":"University of Southern California","ror":"https://ror.org/03taz7m60","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1174212"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I2800817003","display_name":"California Southern University","ror":"https://ror.org/058zz0t50","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Tiankai Yang","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Southern California"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Southern California","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1174212","https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":null,"display_name":"Yue Zhao","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I1174212","display_name":"University of Southern California","ror":"https://ror.org/03taz7m60","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I1174212"]},{"id":"https://openalex.org/I2800817003","display_name":"California Southern University","ror":"https://ror.org/058zz0t50","country_code":"US","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}],"countries":["US"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Yue Zhao","raw_affiliation_strings":["University of Southern California"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"University of Southern California","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I1174212","https://openalex.org/I2800817003"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":2,"institutions_distinct_count":4,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":2.327,"has_fulltext":true,"cited_by_count":1,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.88613583,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":94,"max":97},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"18423","last_page":"18434"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13397","display_name":"Hallucinations in medical conditions","score":0.6571999788284302,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2805","display_name":"Cognitive Neuroscience"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/28","display_name":"Neuroscience"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/1","display_name":"Life Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T13397","display_name":"Hallucinations in medical conditions","score":0.6571999788284302,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2805","display_name":"Cognitive Neuroscience"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/28","display_name":"Neuroscience"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/1","display_name":"Life Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12553","display_name":"Psychedelics and Drug Studies","score":0.16990000009536743,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3203","display_name":"Clinical Psychology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/32","display_name":"Psychology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T12448","display_name":"Paranormal Experiences and Beliefs","score":0.013100000098347664,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3207","display_name":"Social Psychology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/32","display_name":"Psychology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/counterfactual-thinking","display_name":"Counterfactual thinking","score":0.6577000021934509},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/causality","display_name":"Causality (physics)","score":0.3441999852657318},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/action","display_name":"Action (physics)","score":0.289000004529953},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/counterfactual-conditional","display_name":"Counterfactual conditional","score":0.27410000562667847},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/blame","display_name":"Blame","score":0.27250000834465027}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C108650721","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1783253","display_name":"Counterfactual thinking","level":2,"score":0.6577000021934509},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C15744967","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9418","display_name":"Psychology","level":0,"score":0.42980000376701355},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C180747234","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23373","display_name":"Cognitive psychology","level":1,"score":0.41190001368522644},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C64357122","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1149766","display_name":"Causality (physics)","level":2,"score":0.3441999852657318},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C77805123","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q161272","display_name":"Social psychology","level":1,"score":0.32679998874664307},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.3172000050544739},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.3043999969959259},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780791683","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q846785","display_name":"Action (physics)","level":2,"score":0.289000004529953},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C111472728","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q9471","display_name":"Epistemology","level":1,"score":0.2872999906539917},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C71889745","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1783264","display_name":"Counterfactual conditional","level":3,"score":0.27410000562667847},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2781466463","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q621695","display_name":"Blame","level":2,"score":0.27250000834465027},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C11671645","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5054567","display_name":"Causal model","level":2,"score":0.26649999618530273},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C61797465","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1188986","display_name":"Term (time)","level":2,"score":0.25200000405311584}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-emnlp.1000.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":{"id":"doi:10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","is_oa":true,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2025.findings-emnlp.1000","pdf_url":"https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-emnlp.1000.pdf","source":null,"license":"cc-by","license_id":"https://openalex.org/licenses/cc-by","version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2025","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/G1860245536","display_name":"NSF POSE: Phase II: OpenAD: An Integrated Open-Source Ecosystem for Anomaly Detection","funder_award_id":"2346158","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G2610354679","display_name":"POSE: Phase I: OpenTrustLLM: An Open-Source Ecosystem for Trustworthiness in Large Language Models","funder_award_id":"2449280","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"},{"id":"https://openalex.org/G8034736573","display_name":"ATD: Multifaceted Large Trajectory Model for Individual and Group Anomalous Behavior Detection from Spatiotemporal Data","funder_award_id":"2428039","funder_id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","funder_display_name":"National Science Foundation"}],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","display_name":"National Science Foundation","ror":"https://ror.org/021nxhr62"}],"has_content":{"pdf":true,"grobid_xml":true},"content_urls":{"pdf":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4416034323.pdf","grobid_xml":"https://content.openalex.org/works/W4416034323.grobid-xml"},"referenced_works_count":0,"referenced_works":[],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Vision-Language":[0],"Models":[1],"(VLMs)":[2],"excel":[3],"at":[4],"tasks":[5],"such":[6],"as":[7],"image":[8,149],"captioning":[9],"and":[10,49,86,100,105,144,154,158,189],"visual":[11,24,156],"question":[12],"answering":[13],"but":[14],"frequently":[15],"produce":[16],"hallucinated":[17,151],"outputs":[18,112],"that":[19,57,70,113,176],"deviate":[20],"from":[21,60,137],"the":[22,65,72,84,92,168],"actual":[23],"input":[25],"or":[26,36,67],"prompt.While":[27],"prior":[28],"work":[29],"links":[30],"hallucination":[31,51,181],"to":[32,47,90,132,165],"biases":[33],"in":[34,52,118],"data":[35],"representation,":[37],"their":[38,101],"causal":[39,45,81,130],"origins":[40],"remain":[41],"unclear.We":[42],"propose":[43],"a":[44,80,161,187],"framework":[46,191],"analyze":[48],"mitigate":[50],"VLMs.Our":[53],"key":[54],"hypothesis":[55],"is":[56],"hallucinations":[58],"arise":[59],"unintended":[61],"direct":[62,108],"influences":[63],"of":[64,83,97,124],"vision":[66],"text":[68,152],"modality":[69,99,139],"bypass":[71],"intended":[73],"multi-modal":[74],"fusion.To":[75],"examine":[76],"this,":[77],"we":[78,110],"construct":[79],"graph":[82],"VLM":[85,194],"use":[87],"counterfactual":[88],"analysis":[89],"estimate":[91],"Natural":[93],"Direct":[94],"Effect":[95],"(NDE)":[96],"each":[98,172],"interaction.By":[102],"systematically":[103],"identifying":[104],"suppressing":[106],"these":[107],"effects,":[109],"encourage":[111],"are":[114],"more":[115],"faithfully":[116],"grounded":[117],"true":[119],"cross-modal":[120,145],"reasoning.Our":[121],"approach":[122],"consists":[123],"three":[125],"steps:":[126],"(1)":[127],"designing":[128],"structural":[129],"graphs":[131],"distinguish":[133],"correct":[134],"fusion":[135],"pathways":[136],"spurious":[138],"shortcuts,":[140],"(2)":[141],"estimating":[142],"modalityspecific":[143],"NDE":[146],"using":[147],"perturbed":[148],"representations,":[150],"embeddings,":[153],"degraded":[155],"inputs,":[157],"(3)":[159],"implementing":[160],"test-time":[162],"intervention":[163],"module":[164],"dynamically":[166],"adjust":[167],"model's":[169],"dependence":[170],"on":[171],"modality.Experimental":[173],"results":[174],"demonstrate":[175],"our":[177],"method":[178],"significantly":[179],"reduces":[180],"while":[182],"preserving":[183],"task":[184],"performance,":[185],"providing":[186],"robust":[188],"interpretable":[190],"for":[192],"improving":[193],"reliability.":[195]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2026,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-08-25T07:29:55.448023","created_date":"2025-11-08T00:00:00"}