Stronger Language Models Produce More Human-Like Errors

Do language models converge toward human-like reasoning patterns as they improve? We provide surprising evidence that while overall reasoning capabilities increase with model sophistication, the nature of errors increasingly mirrors predictable human reasoning fallacies: a previously unobserved inverse scaling phenomenon. To investigate this question, we apply the Erotetic Theory of Reasoning (ETR), a formal cognitive framework with empirical support for predicting human reasoning outcomes. Using the open-source package PyETR, we generate logical reasoning problems where humans predictably err, evaluating responses from 38 language models across 383 reasoning tasks. Our analysis indicates that as models advance in general capability (as measured by Chatbot Arena scores), the proportion of their incorrect answers that align with ETR-predicted human fallacies tends to increase ($\rho = 0.360, p = 0.0265$). Notably, as we observe no correlation between model sophistication and logical correctness on these tasks, this shift in error patterns toward human-likeness occurs independently of error rate. These findings challenge the prevailing view that scaling language models naturally obtains normative rationality, suggesting instead a convergence toward human-like cognition inclusive of our characteristic biases and limitations, as we further confirm by demonstrating order-effects in language model reasoning.

@article{richardson2025_2506.11128,
  title={ Stronger Language Models Produce More Human-Like Errors },
  author={ Andrew Keenan Richardson and Ryan Othniel Kearns and Sean Moss and Vincent Wang-Mascianica and Philipp Koralus },
  journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11128},
  year={ 2025 }
}