Reasoning About Reasoning: Towards Informed and Reflective Use of LLM Reasoning in HCI

Abstract

Reasoning is a distinctive human-like characteristic attributed to LLMs in HCI due to their ability to simulate various human-level tasks. However, this work argues that the reasoning behavior of LLMs in HCI is often decontextualized from the underlying mechanics and subjective decisions that condition the emergence and human interpretation of this behavior. Through a systematic survey of 258 CHI papers from 2020-2025 on LLMs, we discuss how HCI hardly perceives LLM reasoning as a product of sociotechnical orchestration and often references it as an object of application. We argue that such abstraction leads to oversimplification of reasoning methodologies from NLP/ML and results in a distortion of LLMs' empirically studied capabilities and (un)known limitations. Finally, drawing on literature from both NLP/ML and HCI, as a constructive step forward, we develop reflection prompts to support HCI practitioners engage with LLM reasoning in an informed and reflective way.