@inproceedings{elbadry-etal-2026-right,
title = "Right Frame, Wrong Rule: Cultural Cues Expose the Financial Knowledge Gap They Were Meant to Close",
author = "Elbadry, Rania and
Heakl, Ahmed and
Almheiri, Saeed and
Zhang, Fan and
AlMahri, Muhra and
Peng, Xueqing and
Kabir, Mohsinul and
Wang, Shuyao and
Han, Yi and
Eletter, Saadeldine and
Zhang, Duzhen and
Nakov, Preslav and
Wang, Yuxia and
Koto, Fajri and
Xie, Zhuohan",
editor = "Lee, Hung-Yi and
Dev, Sunipa and
Li, Jessy and
Elliott, Desmond",
booktitle = "Findings of the {A}ssociation for {C}omputational {L}inguistics: {EMNLP} 2026",
month = oct,
year = "2026",
address = "Budapest, Hungary",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.2110/",
pages = "44959--44986",
ISBN = "979-8-89176-462-0",
abstract = "When multiple normative frameworks yield equally valid answers, which framework should a language model select, and can it answer correctly within it? We formalize this as normative pluralism and study it in Islamic finance with a four-choice taxonomy that decomposes framework selection from within-framework correctness. The decomposition exposes a failure mode invisible to two-choice instruments, the stereotype trap: a model leans toward the culturally appropriate framework but produces factually wrong answers within it. Across twelve models, two languages, and fifty demographic signals, cultural cues redirect framework selection at severe cost: redirection and correctness are inversely coupled (r={\ensuremath{-}}0.89 Arabic, r={\ensuremath{-}}0.81 English). Under the strongest signal, large open-weight models reach 97{\%} Islamic-frame selection, a result two-choice instruments would report as near-perfect alignment, yet 57-66{\%} of those responses misquote the Islamic rule. We argue that cultural default bias is competence-conditioned routing: models default to the framework where they are most accurate, and the cues prescribed as mitigation expose the competence gap they were meant to correct."
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<abstract>When multiple normative frameworks yield equally valid answers, which framework should a language model select, and can it answer correctly within it? We formalize this as normative pluralism and study it in Islamic finance with a four-choice taxonomy that decomposes framework selection from within-framework correctness. The decomposition exposes a failure mode invisible to two-choice instruments, the stereotype trap: a model leans toward the culturally appropriate framework but produces factually wrong answers within it. Across twelve models, two languages, and fifty demographic signals, cultural cues redirect framework selection at severe cost: redirection and correctness are inversely coupled (r=\ensuremath-0.89 Arabic, r=\ensuremath-0.81 English). Under the strongest signal, large open-weight models reach 97% Islamic-frame selection, a result two-choice instruments would report as near-perfect alignment, yet 57-66% of those responses misquote the Islamic rule. We argue that cultural default bias is competence-conditioned routing: models default to the framework where they are most accurate, and the cues prescribed as mitigation expose the competence gap they were meant to correct.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Right Frame, Wrong Rule: Cultural Cues Expose the Financial Knowledge Gap They Were Meant to Close
%A Elbadry, Rania
%A Heakl, Ahmed
%A Almheiri, Saeed
%A Zhang, Fan
%A AlMahri, Muhra
%A Peng, Xueqing
%A Kabir, Mohsinul
%A Wang, Shuyao
%A Han, Yi
%A Eletter, Saadeldine
%A Zhang, Duzhen
%A Nakov, Preslav
%A Wang, Yuxia
%A Koto, Fajri
%A Xie, Zhuohan
%Y Lee, Hung-Yi
%Y Dev, Sunipa
%Y Li, Jessy
%Y Elliott, Desmond
%S Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2026
%D 2026
%8 October
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Budapest, Hungary
%@ 979-8-89176-462-0
%F elbadry-etal-2026-right
%X When multiple normative frameworks yield equally valid answers, which framework should a language model select, and can it answer correctly within it? We formalize this as normative pluralism and study it in Islamic finance with a four-choice taxonomy that decomposes framework selection from within-framework correctness. The decomposition exposes a failure mode invisible to two-choice instruments, the stereotype trap: a model leans toward the culturally appropriate framework but produces factually wrong answers within it. Across twelve models, two languages, and fifty demographic signals, cultural cues redirect framework selection at severe cost: redirection and correctness are inversely coupled (r=\ensuremath-0.89 Arabic, r=\ensuremath-0.81 English). Under the strongest signal, large open-weight models reach 97% Islamic-frame selection, a result two-choice instruments would report as near-perfect alignment, yet 57-66% of those responses misquote the Islamic rule. We argue that cultural default bias is competence-conditioned routing: models default to the framework where they are most accurate, and the cues prescribed as mitigation expose the competence gap they were meant to correct.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.2110/
%P 44959-44986
Markdown (Informal)
[Right Frame, Wrong Rule: Cultural Cues Expose the Financial Knowledge Gap They Were Meant to Close](https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-emnlp.2110/) (Elbadry et al., Findings 2026)
ACL
- Rania Elbadry, Ahmed Heakl, Saeed Almheiri, Fan Zhang, Muhra AlMahri, Xueqing Peng, Mohsinul Kabir, Shuyao Wang, Yi Han, Saadeldine Eletter, Duzhen Zhang, Preslav Nakov, Yuxia Wang, Fajri Koto, and Zhuohan Xie. 2026. Right Frame, Wrong Rule: Cultural Cues Expose the Financial Knowledge Gap They Were Meant to Close. In Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2026, pages 44959–44986, Budapest, Hungary. Association for Computational Linguistics.