Many of our decisions are influenced by irrelevant aspects of the situations (e.g. the precise way in which the issue is presented). This phenomenon is called

The correct answer is A) framing. The framing effect is the tendency for logically equivalent choices to produce different decisions depending on how they are presented. Tversky and Kahneman's 1981 'Asian disease problem' is the classic demonstration: the same outcome described as 'lives saved' versus 'lives lost' shifts people's preferences.

• B) Anticipated regret is wrong. It is a decision-making consideration where people avoid choices they expect to regret later (regret theory). It is about the anticipated emotional outcome, not about presentation.
• C) Personal verification is wrong. It is not a recognised decision-making bias. In social psychology it refers to people seeking confirmation of their self-view, which has no link to how a problem is worded.
• D) Loss aversion is wrong as the answer. It is the finding in prospect theory that losses hurt roughly twice as much as equal gains feel good. It is a distinct bias, though loss-versus-gain framing often triggers it.

For Mains, this links to behavioural economics and 'nudge' policy, such as default options in pension or organ-donation schemes. Officers must recognise that presentation shapes public response, which matters for ethics (GS4) and transparent communication.

Trap: aspirants pick loss aversion because the Asian disease example involves losses. Ask yourself whether the question is about the presentation of the same facts, which points to framing.