Definition
Plain language
When a speaker tailors what they say based on who they think is listening.
As stated in the literature
A sociolinguistic concept describing how speakers adapt their utterances to the perceived identity, knowledge, or expectations of their listeners; invoked to explain LLM political-bias variation across prompted personas.
Why it matters: It explains why LLMs shift their answers depending on who they think is asking, which is essential for understanding apparent bias swings across personas.
For example, you'll describe your job differently to a five-year-old than to a colleague in the same field, even when conveying the same facts.
Heard on the show
“Race-of-interviewer effects, social desirability bias, audience design — there's a whole literature on this.”Episode 015 — The Audit Number Isn't What You Think: Sycophancy and the Case Against Single-Prompt Bias Tests