Steering False Event Reports: Fabricated Support and Subsequent Evidence Use

Activation steering induces false event reports with fabricated support. In 96 blinded generations from 16 events, two independent raters find fabricated support in 0.72 and 0.69 of steered responses, versus at most 0.06 in controls (\kappa=0.667). Present-minus-absent residual directions raise false-report probability by 0.726–0.999 over norm-matched random controls across three Qwen2.5 checkpoints; unrelated-event directions have equivalent graded effects. These experiments link steered reports to generated supporting content in the tested settings.