arXiv Computer Vision October 22, 2026 By Razieh Rezaei, Ehsaneddin Asgary, Masoud Jalili Sabet

Melange: A Synthetic Visual Bias Benchmark for Multi-modal Large Language Models

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Melange is a synthetic visual bias benchmark designed to evaluate social biases in multi‑modal large language models (MLLMs). It extends the language‑only BBQ dataset by generating controlled visual scenarios that clearly depict target attributes, and validates images through automated VQA screening and human inspection. Using Melange, 23 open‑source MLLMs were tested in text‑only, image‑only, and image‑with‑context settings, revealing that switching from text to vision reduces fairness by an average of 0.291 and that models often choose stereotypical responses when biased answers are made.

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