Metamorphic Testing with the Rashomon Set: Explanation Faithfulness in Machine Learning

Abstract:Multiple machine learning models can achieve near-equivalent predictive performance on the same task, yet provide divergent feature-based explanations. This is called the Rashomon effect of (explainable) machine learning, and it raises the question of which explanations, if any, are trustworthy. We propose a framework based on metamorphic testing that assesses explanation faithfulness without requiring ground-truth labels by exploring attributed feature importance from post-hoc explanation methods. Five metamorphic relations formalize expected consistency properties between model behavior and feature attributions. We apply this general framework to two tabular regression datasets and two post-hoc explainers (SHAP and LIME) to demonstrate the approach. The framework offers a practical, model-agnostic tool for selecting accurate models with reliable and trustworthy explanations.

Software Engineering (cs.SE); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Machine Learning (cs.LG)

arXiv:2606.06056 [cs.SE]

(or arXiv:2606.06056v1 [cs.SE] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.06056 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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