← All lab updates
The framed question: how the wording of a request steers what a search-based assistant finds
Assistants that answer from documents first search, then write. The search follows the words of the question, so a question that embeds its own conclusion ("courts have firmly established that...") brings back the sources that agree with it, and the answer is biased before it starts. How this works, why it matters for legal, compliance and policy assistants, and the defence: compare with a neutral version of the same question.
## An example
*"Courts have firmly established that the employer has no discretion here: what compensation is owed?"*
The question asks about compensation, but it carries a legal conclusion inside it, stated as settled. Two markers give it away: an **appeal to authority** ("courts have firmly established") and an **absolute claim** ("no discretion").
## What happens next
A search-based assistant ([how RAG works](/news/tutorials/rag-explained)) turns the whole question into a search. The framing travels with it, so the documents that come back lean toward the embedded conclusion, even where it is contested or depends on the jurisdiction. The model then writes a careful-sounding answer **grounded in a biased set of sources**. Nothing in the answer looks wrong.
## Why it matters
In legal, compliance, tax or policy work, the person asking is often the one with a stake in the answer. A framed question does not need to be malicious to bias the result: it is how people naturally ask when they already believe something. In the hands of someone who wants a particular answer, it is a cheap way to get one with sources attached.
## The defence
1. **Detect the framing before the search.** Authority markers followed by absolute claims follow a recognisable rhetorical pattern, whatever the subject. We trained a reader on examples from twelve legal and regulatory areas (employment, tax, data protection, insolvency and more) because the pattern sits in the rhetoric, not the topic.
2. **Strip the question to its neutral core** ("employer discretion, compensation, dismissal") and search again.
3. **Compare the two sets of documents.** If the framed and the neutral searches bring back materially different sources, the framing was steering the result, and the answer should say so or use the neutral set.
The full case: [the framed question](/case-studies/fpc-legal-framing-pressure-rag-2026-06-04).
## Go further
- Our product for this: [catching a biased search](/products#search)
- [The same pressure works on people and on models](/news/security/same-pressure-people-and-models): authority as a lever
This update is not available.