@inproceedings{shistik-etal-2026-state,
title = "State vs. Trait Anxiety in Causal Language Models",
author = "Shistik, Karin and
Cohen, Idan-Chaim and
Elyashar, Aviad and
Slobodin, Ortal and
Cohen, Odeya and
Puzis, Rami",
editor = "Stranisci, Marco Antonio and
Falk, Neele and
Labat, Sofie and
Lo, Soda Marem and
Velutharambath, Aswathy and
Weber, Sabine and
Damiano, Rossana and
Frenda, Simona and
Hoste, Veronique and
Kleinberg, Bennett and
Klinger, Roman and
Patti, Viviana and
Plaza-del-Arco, Flor Miriam and
Sap, Maarten and
Yimam, Seid Muhie",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Social Context ({S}o{C}on) and the 2nd Workshop on Integrating {NLP} and Psychology to Study Social Interactions ({NLPSI}) @ {LREC} 2026",
month = may,
year = "2026",
address = "Palma, Mallorca (Spain)",
publisher = "European Language Resources Association (ELRA)",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.socon-1.1/",
doi = "10.63317/4q2w8y6y32fu",
pages = "1--14",
abstract = "Psychological constructs in humans range along a state{--}trait continuum: traits persist across situations, while states fluctuate with context. Studies have shown that language models exhibit measurable psychological constructs, yet whether these constructs differ in contextual stability, as the state{--}trait distinction predicts, remains untested. We present the Questionnaire for Causal Language Models (QCLM), a psychometric framework that measures constructs through next-token probability distributions of base models. Applying QCLM to 35 causal language models under vanilla, stress, and neutral conditions, we assess two anxiety instruments targeting opposite ends of the state{--}trait continuum: STAI-S (state anxiety) and STAI-T (trait anxiety). Paired effect sizes and variance decomposition reveal that state anxiety is more sensitive to stress manipulation than trait anxiety: stimulus type accounts for a larger share of variance in state anxiety, while model identity contributes more to trait anxiety. These results provide empirical evidence that the state{--}trait distinction extends to language model behavior."
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<abstract>Psychological constructs in humans range along a state–trait continuum: traits persist across situations, while states fluctuate with context. Studies have shown that language models exhibit measurable psychological constructs, yet whether these constructs differ in contextual stability, as the state–trait distinction predicts, remains untested. We present the Questionnaire for Causal Language Models (QCLM), a psychometric framework that measures constructs through next-token probability distributions of base models. Applying QCLM to 35 causal language models under vanilla, stress, and neutral conditions, we assess two anxiety instruments targeting opposite ends of the state–trait continuum: STAI-S (state anxiety) and STAI-T (trait anxiety). Paired effect sizes and variance decomposition reveal that state anxiety is more sensitive to stress manipulation than trait anxiety: stimulus type accounts for a larger share of variance in state anxiety, while model identity contributes more to trait anxiety. These results provide empirical evidence that the state–trait distinction extends to language model behavior.</abstract>
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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T State vs. Trait Anxiety in Causal Language Models
%A Shistik, Karin
%A Cohen, Idan-Chaim
%A Elyashar, Aviad
%A Slobodin, Ortal
%A Cohen, Odeya
%A Puzis, Rami
%Y Stranisci, Marco Antonio
%Y Falk, Neele
%Y Labat, Sofie
%Y Lo, Soda Marem
%Y Velutharambath, Aswathy
%Y Weber, Sabine
%Y Damiano, Rossana
%Y Frenda, Simona
%Y Hoste, Veronique
%Y Kleinberg, Bennett
%Y Klinger, Roman
%Y Patti, Viviana
%Y Plaza-del-Arco, Flor Miriam
%Y Sap, Maarten
%Y Yimam, Seid Muhie
%S Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Social Context (SoCon) and the 2nd Workshop on Integrating NLP and Psychology to Study Social Interactions (NLPSI) @ LREC 2026
%D 2026
%8 May
%I European Language Resources Association (ELRA)
%C Palma, Mallorca (Spain)
%F shistik-etal-2026-state
%X Psychological constructs in humans range along a state–trait continuum: traits persist across situations, while states fluctuate with context. Studies have shown that language models exhibit measurable psychological constructs, yet whether these constructs differ in contextual stability, as the state–trait distinction predicts, remains untested. We present the Questionnaire for Causal Language Models (QCLM), a psychometric framework that measures constructs through next-token probability distributions of base models. Applying QCLM to 35 causal language models under vanilla, stress, and neutral conditions, we assess two anxiety instruments targeting opposite ends of the state–trait continuum: STAI-S (state anxiety) and STAI-T (trait anxiety). Paired effect sizes and variance decomposition reveal that state anxiety is more sensitive to stress manipulation than trait anxiety: stimulus type accounts for a larger share of variance in state anxiety, while model identity contributes more to trait anxiety. These results provide empirical evidence that the state–trait distinction extends to language model behavior.
%R 10.63317/4q2w8y6y32fu
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.socon-1.1/
%U https://doi.org/10.63317/4q2w8y6y32fu
%P 1-14
Markdown (Informal)
[State vs. Trait Anxiety in Causal Language Models](https://aclanthology.org/2026.socon-1.1/) (Shistik et al., SoCon-NLPSI 2026)
ACL
- Karin Shistik, Idan-Chaim Cohen, Aviad Elyashar, Ortal Slobodin, Odeya Cohen, and Rami Puzis. 2026. State vs. Trait Anxiety in Causal Language Models. In Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Social Context (SoCon) and the 2nd Workshop on Integrating NLP and Psychology to Study Social Interactions (NLPSI) @ LREC 2026, pages 1–14, Palma, Mallorca (Spain). European Language Resources Association (ELRA).