Mitigating Spurious Correlation via Distributionally Robust Learning with Hierarchical Ambiguity Sets

Sung Ho Jo, Seonghwi Kim, Minwoo Chae

Keywords: Spurious Correlation, Subpopulation Shift, Group Distributionally Robust Optimization, Wasserstein Distributionally Robust Optimization

Abstract: Conventional supervised learning methods are often vulnerable to spurious correlations, particularly under distribution shifts in test data. To address this issue, several approaches, most notably Group DRO, have been developed. While these methods are highly robust to subpopulation or group shifts, they remain vulnerable to intra-group distributional shifts, which frequently occur in minority groups with limited samples. We propose a hierarchical extension of Group DRO that addresses both inter-group and intra-group uncertainties, providing robustness to distribution shifts at multiple levels. We also introduce new benchmark settings that simulate realistic minority group distribution shifts—an important yet previously underexplored challenge in spurious correlation research. Our method demonstrates strong robustness under these conditions—where existing robust learning methods consistently fail—while also achieving superior performance on standard benchmarks. These results highlight the importance of broadening the ambiguity set to better capture both inter-group and intra-group distributional uncertainties.

Primary Area: General machine learning (supervised, unsupervised, online, active, etc.)

Submission Number: 11726