Purpose

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the potentially detrimental effects on audit decision-making of certain judgmental heuristics, which can lead to systematic judgmental biases. This paper provides background on the heuristics and biases approaches to decision-making to increase auditors' awareness of the anchoring and adjustment effects affecting audit judgments adversely.

Design/methodology/approach

This study reports the results of an experimental research design analyzing the audit judgment of 85 auditors in Switzerland.

Findings

Based on the results of the experiment, the results indicate evidence on the existence of the anchoring and adjustment heuristic in Swiss audit judgments. The authors could identify an influence of the audit company size, the auditors' experience and the auditors' knowledge about behaviorism and anchor heuristic with regard to the anchoring and adjustment effect on audit judgment.

Research limitations/implications

The experimental tasks were relatively simple abstractions from the more complex analytical review situations faced by practicing auditors. Due to the small sample size, the authors cannot ensure representativeness of the results.

Practical implications

Professional judgment is a skill that auditor acquires overtime, combined with experience and knowledge, that allows him to achieve reasonable judgments, being independent of other opinions and free from material biases in a given circumstance. Our results show that auditors who are aware of biases and heuristics are less prone to judgment biases.

Originality/value

This paper is the first to analyze the impact of auditors' explicit experience and knowledge about behaviorism and anchor heuristic on the anchoring and adjustment effect on audit judgment. Through a stronger awareness of cognitive biases, a professional skepticism can be enhanced.

中文翻译：

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审计判断的锚定和调整效应：来自瑞士的实验证据

目的

本研究的目的是说明某些判断启发式对审计决策的潜在不利影响，这可能导致系统判断偏差。本文提供了有关决策的启发式和偏见方法的背景，以提高审计师对锚定和调整效应对审计判断产生不利影响的意识。

设计/方法/方法

本研究报告了一项实验研究设计的结果，该设计分析了瑞士 85 位审计师的审计判断。

发现

基于实验结果，结果表明瑞士审计判断中存在锚定和调整启发式的证据。作者可以识别审计公司规模、审计师的经验和审计师对行为主义的了解的影响，以及锚定启发式对审计判断的锚定和调整效应。

研究限制/影响

实验任务是从执业审计师面临的更复杂的分析审查情况中相对简单的抽象。由于样本量小，作者无法确保结果的代表性。

实际影响

专业判断是审计师加班获得的一项技能，结合经验和知识，使他能够在特定情况下做出合理的判断，独立于其他意见并没有重大偏见。我们的结果表明，意识到偏见和启发式方法的审计师不太容易出现判断偏见。

原创性/价值

本文首次分析了审计师关于行为主义和锚定启发式的外显经验和知识对审计判断锚定和调整效应的影响。通过对认知偏差的更强认识，可以增强专业怀疑。