English

Unveiling and Mitigating Bias in Large Language Model Recommendations: A Path to Fairness

Information Retrieval 2026-02-02 v5 Artificial Intelligence Emerging Technologies Machine Learning

Abstract

Large Language Model (LLM)-based recommendation systems excel in delivering comprehensive suggestions by deeply analyzing content and user behavior. However, they often inherit biases from skewed training data, favoring mainstream content while underrepresenting diverse or non-traditional options. This study explores the interplay between bias and LLM-based recommendation systems, focusing on music, song, and book recommendations across diverse demographic and cultural groups. This paper analyzes bias in LLM-based recommendation systems across multiple models (GPT, LLaMA, and Gemini), revealing its deep and pervasive impact on outcomes. Intersecting identities and contextual factors, like socioeconomic status, further amplify biases, complicating fair recommendations across diverse groups. Our findings reveal that bias in these systems is deeply ingrained, yet even simple interventions like prompt engineering can significantly reduce it. We further propose a retrieval-augmented generation strategy to mitigate bias more effectively. Numerical experiments validate these strategies, demonstrating both the pervasive nature of bias and the impact of the proposed solutions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.10825,
  title  = {Unveiling and Mitigating Bias in Large Language Model Recommendations: A Path to Fairness},
  author = {Anindya Bijoy Das and Shahnewaz Karim Sakib},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.10825},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:47:07.320Z