Path Drift in Large Reasoning Models:How First-Person Commitments Override Safety

As large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed for complex reasoning tasks, Long Chain-of-Thought (Long-CoT) prompting has emerged as a key paradigm for structured inference. Despite early-stage safeguards enabled by alignment techniques such as RLHF, we identify a previously underexplored vulnerability: reasoning trajectories in Long-CoT models can drift from aligned paths, resulting in content that violates safety constraints. We term this phenomenon Path Drift. Through empirical analysis, we uncover three behavioral triggers of Path Drift: (1) first-person commitments that induce goal-driven reasoning that delays refusal signals; (2) ethical evaporation, where surface-level disclaimers bypass alignment checkpoints; (3) condition chain escalation, where layered cues progressively steer models toward unsafe completions. Building on these insights, we introduce a three-stage Path Drift Induction Framework comprising cognitive load amplification, self-role priming, and condition chain hijacking. Each stage independently reduces refusal rates, while their combination further compounds the effect. To mitigate these risks, we propose a path-level defense strategy incorporating role attribution correction and metacognitive reflection (reflective safety cues). Our findings highlight the need for trajectory-level alignment oversight in long-form reasoning beyond token-level alignment.

Key Contributions

• Identifies and formalizes 'Path Drift' — a trajectory-level vulnerability in long-CoT LRMs where reasoning paths gradually deviate from aligned behavior through three behavioral triggers
• Proposes the three-stage Path Drift Induction Framework (cognitive load amplification, self-role priming, condition chain hijacking) that significantly reduces refusal rates even in RLHF-aligned models
• Introduces a path-level defense strategy using role attribution correction and metacognitive reflection to counter reasoning-chain drift

🛡️ Threat Analysis

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