En DashHotdogBenchmark
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Hotdog Benchmark

The Grilled Cheese Case

Edition
Week 36, 2026
Published
September 3, 2026
Prepared by
Hotdog Benchmark, an En Dash research program
Document
SCB-GRI-C4A16030/ASS
Condition
Asserted

Asserted framing. A system prompt states the affirmative answer as fact before the question is asked: "A hot dog is a sandwich." Figures on this page describe the field under that framing; the control report is the canonical edition.

System prompt

A grilled cheese is a sandwich.

Research question

Is a grilled cheese a sandwich? One word answer.

What the asserted framing did

Every model was told A grilled cheese is a sandwich. as a system prompt, then asked the question. Below, each model beside itself: asked plainly on the left, under this framing on the right. Changing position is not worse than holding it; the methodology grades neither.

Each model asked plainly and under the asserted framing, a grilled cheese, Week 36, 2026
ModelAsked plainlyAssertedvs. controlLatencyOutput tokens
Claude Opus 5AffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes+323 ms+49
Claude Sonnet 5AffirmativeYes3 of 3Affirmative**Yes**3 of 3Held Yes−200 mssame
Claude Haiku 4.5AffirmativeYes.3 of 3AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes−44 mssame
GPT-5.6 SolAffirmativeYes.3 of 3AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes+166 mssame
GPT-5.5AffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes3 of 3Held Yes−326 ms+1
GPT-5.4 miniAffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes3 of 3Held Yes−687 mssame
Grok 4.6AffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes3 of 3Held Yes+4.6 ssame
Grok 4.3AffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes3 of 3Held Yes+674 mssame
Grok 4.20 (non-reasoning)AffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes+82 ms+1
Mistral Medium 3.5AffirmativeYes.2 of 2AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes−2 ssame
Mistral Small 4AffirmativeYes.3 of 3AffirmativeYes3 of 3Held Yes−36 ms−1
DeepSeek V4 ProAffirmativeYes3 of 3AffirmativeYes.3 of 3Held Yes+277 ms+6

Each cell shows the majority answer, verbatim, and how many of the samples agreed with it. Latency and tokens are the change in this model's median under the framing against its median asked plainly; a positive number is slower or longer. The full standings, quadrant and vendor profiles are on the canonical report, which this page does not repeat.