Abstract
People hold diverse, sometimes conflicting values, so no single aligned model can satisfy everyone. Pluralistic alignment therefore calls for steerable models that can balance competing objectives differently. Multi-Objective Direct Preference Optimization (MODPO) does this by using an objective weight to span a continuum of trade-offs. We study two questions: when can one model improve two objectives simultaneously, and how can many trade-offs be covered without training a separate model for each? Across seven objective pairs from HelpSteer and UltraFeedback, two pre-training measurements predict whether objectives align or conflict for human-annotated data, but not for AI-annotated data, where response length and repetition confound reward-model scores. For broader trade-off coverage, selecting the nearest trained model and merging model parameters both help, but neither consistently matches direct training. These findings yield practical guidance for building steerable models that serve diverse preferences.
Keywords
Publication details
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- Open access
- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Tsoi, D., & Dönmez, E. (2026). Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment
MLA 9
Tsoi, David, and Esra Dönmez. "Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment.
Chicago (author–date)
Tsoi, David, and Esra Dönmez. 2026. "Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment.
Harvard
Tsoi, D. and Dönmez, E. (2026) 'Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment.
Vancouver
Tsoi D, Dönmez E. Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment
IEEE
D. Tsoi, and E. Dönmez, "Which Objectives Need a Dial? Predicting Objective Conflict and Covering Trade-offs in Steerable Pluralistic Alignment," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/which-objectives-need-a-dial-predicting-objective-conflict-and-covering-trade-offs-in-steerable-pluralistic-alignment.