Polarization-dependent resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) has been shown to be a probe of molecularfield effects on the electronic structure of isolated molecules. In this experimental analysis we explain the linear dichroism observed in Cl 2p polarized RIXS following Cl 1s excitation of a series of chlorofluoromethanes (CF 3 Cl, CF 2 Cl 2 , CFCl 3 , and CCl 4 ) as due to molecular-field effects, including singlet-triplet exchange. We present an approach to extract directly the 2p inner-shell electronic state populations from the experimental measurements. Using the angular properties of the measured KV emission we also are able to determine the value of the polarization anisotropy parameter β p for each resolved component of the KV emission spectra.