Beyond Behaviour: A Stimulus-Response Safety Evaluation of Vision-Language-Action Models

Vy Vo, Dinh Phung

Humans exhibit biological sensitivity to safety-critical stimuli that can trigger defensive action. Across three models and two video benchmarks, we investigate whether similar responses emerge in vision-language-action models by examining their internal representations and action tendencies in response to visible hazards and harmful consequences. Our findings suggest that task execution may remain the default response even when danger is internally registered.