Exploring Knowledge Conflicts for Faithful LLM Reasoning: Benchmark and Method
Abstract
Large language models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success across a wide range of applications especially when augmented by external knowledge through retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Despite their widespread adoption, recent studies have shown that LLMs often struggle to perform faithful reasoning when conflicting knowledge is retrieved. However, existing work primarily focuses on conflicts between external knowledge and the parametric knowledge of LLMs, leaving conflicts across external knowledge largely unexplored. Meanwhile, modern RAG systems increasingly emphasize the integration of unstructured text and (semi-)structured data like knowledge graphs (KGs) to improve knowledge completeness and reasoning faithfulness. To address this gap, we introduce ConflictQA, a novel benchmark that systematically instantiates conflicts between textual evidence and KG evidence. Extensive evaluations across representative LLMs reveal that, facing such cross-source conflicts, LLMs often fail to identify reliable evidence for correct reasoning. Instead, LLMs become more sensitive to prompting choices and tend to rely exclusively on either KG or textual evidence, resulting in incorrect responses. Based on these findings, we further propose XoT, a two-stage explanation-based thinking framework tailored for reasoning over heterogeneous conflicting evidence, and verify its effectiveness with extensive experiments.
Assigned reviewers
| # | Reviewer | Match | Why (closest evidence publications in the taxonomy) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xingyu Tan 0001 | 64 | 74 HydraRAG: Structured Cross-Source Enhanced Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 74 Paths-over-Graph: Knowledge Graph Empowered Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 74 MemoTime: Memory-Augmented Temporal Knowledge Graph Enhanced Large Language Model Reasoning (2026) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 2 | Farzad Shami | 62 | 71 Benchmarking Large Language Models for Knowledge Graph Validation (2026) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 71 Fact Verification in Knowledge Graphs Using LLMs (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 41 From Single to Multi-agent Reasoning: Advancing GeneGPT for Genomics QA (2026) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA |
Area chair
| Area chair | Match | |
|---|---|---|
| Xiaoxi Li 0005 | 49 |
Area-chair candidates (5)
| Xiaoxi Li 0005 assigned | 49 | 15 papers | |
| Hongjin Qian | 42 | 12 papers | |
| Xiaoxue Zang | 37 | 4 papers | |
| Jun Xu 0001 | 37 | 2 papers | |
| Kam-Fai Wong | 35 | 6 papers |
Candidates from the panel ranked by match score
| # | Reviewer | Match | Load | Why | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xingyu Tan 0001 assigned | 64 | 3 | 74 HydraRAG: Structured Cross-Source Enhanced Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 74 Paths-over-Graph: Knowledge Graph Empowered Large Language Model Reasoning (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 2 | Farzad Shami assigned | 62 | 3 | 71 Benchmarking Large Language Models for Knowledge Graph Validation (2026) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 71 Fact Verification in Knowledge Graphs Using LLMs (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 3 | Armin Toroghi | 57 | 3 | 71 Verifiable, Debuggable, and Repairable Commonsense Logical Reasoning via LLM-based Theory Resolution (2024) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 71 LLM-based Typed Hyperresolution for Commonsense Reasoning with Knowledge Bases (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 5 | Jiapu Wang COI: co-author | 49 | 3 | 67 Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap (2024) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 67 From implicit parameters to explicit knowledge graphs: A structured knowledge recall framework for bidirectional generalization in LLMs (2027) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 6 | Qinggang Zhang | 47 | 3 | 72 KnowGPT: Knowledge Graph based Prompting for Large Language Models (2024) Multimodal and Graph RAG 59 Cost-efficient Knowledge-based Question Answering with Large Language Models (2024) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA |
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| 7 | Jing Liu 0022 | 47 | 3 | 71 Reinforced Informativeness Optimization for Long-Form Retrieval-Augmented Generation (2026) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement 59 Unveiling Knowledge Utilization Mechanisms in LLM-based Retrieval-Augmented Generation (2025) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness |
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| 8 | Yu Gu 0016 | 46 | 3 | 74 HippoRAG: Neurobiologically Inspired Long-Term Memory for Large Language Models (2024) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 68 Middleware for LLMs: Tools Are Instrumental for Language Agents in Complex Environments (2024) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning |
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| 9 | Wenyu Huang | 46 | 3 | 71 Prompting large language models with knowledge graphs for question answering involving long-tail facts (2025) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 41 Masking in Multi-hop QA: An Analysis of How Language Models Perform with Context Permutation (2025) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA |
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| 10 | Ben Liu 0002 | 44 | 3 | 56 SymAgent: A Neural-Symbolic Self-Learning Agent Framework for Complex Reasoning over Knowledge Graphs (2025) Reasoning Evaluation and Benchmarks 54 Plan Then Retrieve: Reinforcement Learning-Guided Complex Reasoning over Knowledge Graphs (2026) RL Training of Search Agents |
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| 11 | Xiaolong Jin 0001 | 44 | 3 | 71 A New Pipeline for Knowledge Graph Reasoning Enhanced by Large Language Models Without Fine-Tuning (2024) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 45 Hierarchical Query Graph Generation for Complex Question Answering over Knowledge Graph (2020) Knowledge Graph Question Answering |
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| 12 | Kaixin Ma | 44 | 3 | 71 Chain-of-Note: Enhancing Robustness in Retrieval-Augmented Language Models (2024) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement 58 Knowledge-driven Data Construction for Zero-shot Evaluation in Commonsense Question Answering (2021) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA |
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| 13 | Yujia Zhou 0002 | 43 | 3 | 59 Robust Fine-tuning for Retrieval Augmented Generation against Retrieval Defects (2025) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 57 RetroLLM: Empowering Large Language Models to Retrieve Fine-grained Evidence within Generation (2025) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement |
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| 14 | Weiwei Sun 0001 | 42 | 3 | 59 Contrastive Learning Reduces Hallucination in Conversations (2023) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 58 Direct Retrieval-augmented Optimization: Synergizing Knowledge Selection and Language Models (2026) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement |
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| 16 | Jinheon Baek | 42 | 3 | 65 KALA: Knowledge-Augmented Language Model Adaptation (2022) KG-Augmented LLM Reasoning 59 Efficient Real-time Refinement of Language Model Text Generation (2025) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness |
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| 17 | Yuzhong Qu | 41 | 3 | 47 Enhancing Complex Question Answering over Knowledge Graphs through Evidence Pattern Retrieval (2024) Knowledge Graph Question Answering 47 Skeleton parsing for complex question answering over knowledge bases (2022) Knowledge Graph Question Answering |
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| 18 | Tianzhe Zhao COI: author | 41 | 3 | 52 Self-supervised Quantized Representation for Seamlessly Integrating Knowledge Graphs with Large Language Models (2025) Text Representation and Language Models › Others 51 Logic-Aware Knowledge Graph Reasoning for Structural Sparsity under Large Language Model Supervision (2025) Graph Learning for Text-Attributed and Heterogeneous Networks |
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| 19 | Di Wu 0054 | 40 | 3 | 59 Synchronous Faithfulness Monitoring for Trustworthy Retrieval-Augmented Generation (2024) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 51 LongMemEval: Benchmarking Chat Assistants on Long-Term Interactive Memory (2025) Conversational Search and Retrieval |
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| 20 | Xinying Qian | 40 | 3 | 61 TimeR⁴ : Time-aware Retrieval-Augmented Large Language Models for Temporal Knowledge Graph Question Answering (2024) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning 41 Beyond Timestamps: Bridging Forward and Backward Reasoning in Temporal Numerical and Relational Understanding (2026) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA |
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| 21 | Navve Wasserman | 40 | 3 | 45 DocReRank: Single-Page Hard Negative Query Generation for Training Multi-Modal RAG Rerankers (2025) Universal Multimodal Embedding and MLLM Retrieval 45 REAL-MM-RAG: A Real-World Multi-Modal Retrieval Benchmark (2025) Universal Multimodal Embedding and MLLM Retrieval |
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| 22 | Shu Zhou 0002 | 40 | 3 | 61 DynKGRAG: A framework for dynamic knowledge graph construction and multi-hop querying over numerical and textual data (2026) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning 56 Calibrating Uncertainty with Cross-Model Consistency for LLM Hallucination Mitigation (2026) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness |
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| 23 | Qingyi Si | 39 | 3 | 59 Breaking the Trade-Off Between Faithfulness and Expressiveness for Large Language Models (2026) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 42 Cross-modality Multiple Relations Learning for Knowledge-based Visual Question Answering (2024) Knowledge Graph Question Answering |
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| 24 | Archiki Prasad | 38 | 3 | 59 AdaCAD: Adaptively Decoding to Balance Conflicts between Contextual and Parametric Knowledge (2025) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 41 MeetingQA: Extractive Question-Answering on Meeting Transcripts (2023) Retrieval-Augmented and Open-Domain QA |
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| 25 | Xi Ye 0003 | 37 | 3 | 59 Effective Large Language Model Adaptation for Improved Grounding and Citation Generation (2024) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 47 RNG-KBQA: Generation Augmented Iterative Ranking for Knowledge Base Question Answering (2022) Knowledge Graph Question Answering |
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| 26 | Ori Yoran | 37 | 3 | 70 Making Retrieval-Augmented Language Models Robust to Irrelevant Context (2024) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement 41 Answering Questions by Meta-Reasoning over Multiple Chains of Thought (2023) Reasoning-Intensive Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 28 | Chen Zhao 0013 | 37 | 3 | 57 SportReason: Evaluating Retrieval-Augmented Reasoning across Tables and Text for Sports Question Answering (2025) Multi-Hop and Iterative Retrieval Reasoning 41 TaPERA: Enhancing Faithfulness and Interpretability in Long-Form Table QA by Content Planning and Execution-based Reasoning (2024) Multi-hop and Complex Reasoning QA |
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| 30 | Mariano Barone | 37 | 3 | 56 Combining Evidence and Reasoning for Biomedical Fact-Checking (2025) Automated Fact Checking and Claim Verification 42 Combating Biomedical Misinformation through Multi-modal Claim Detection and Evidence-based Verification (2025) RAG for Domain Applications |
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| 31 | Wonduk Seo | 37 | 3 | 37 Automated Visualization Code Synthesis via Multi-path Reasoning and Feedback-Driven Optimizations (2026) Reasoning Evaluation and Benchmarks 36 SPIO: Ensemble and Selective Strategies via LLM-Based Multi-Agent Planning in Automated Data Science (2026) Multi-Agent and Tool-Use Orchestration |
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| 32 | Fu Zhang 0001 | 36 | 3 | 40 Representation Learning of Knowledge Graphs with Multi-scale Capsule Network (2019) Knowledge Graph Embedding and Completion 40 Temporal householder transformation embedding for temporal knowledge graph completion (2026) Knowledge Graph Embedding and Completion |
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| 33 | Tingyu Song | 36 | 3 | 54 LimRank: Less is More for Reasoning-Intensive Information Reranking (2025) Evidence Selection and Context Refinement 35 Rethinking Reasoning-Intensive Retrieval: Evaluating and Advancing Retrievers in Agentic Search Systems (2026) Reasoning-Intensive Retrieval and Ranking |
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| 34 | Yu-An Liu 0028 | 36 | 3 | 59 AdversarialCoT: Single-Document Retrieval Poisoning for LLM Reasoning (2026) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness 59 Compete to Complete: Co-opetition Adversarial Learning for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (2026) Knowledge Conflict and Faithfulness |