Auditors frequently seek informal advice from peers to improve judgment quality, but the conditions under which advice improves auditor judgment are poorly understood. We predict and find evidence of a trust heuristic among auditors receiving advice from advisors with whom they share a social...

We examine recent developments in judgment and decision making (JDM) research to provide insight into how two big ideas in this area can be leveraged as overlapping frameworks to examine and improve auditor judgment. The ideas are (1) that human thinking and reasoning can be characterized by a...

This paper reports the results of an experiment that examines how analyst forecast accuracy (i.e., how close an analyst's forecast is to realized earnings) and forecast boldness (i.e. how far the analyst's forecast is from the consensus forecast) affect the analyst's perceived credibility and...

Auditors rely on specialists in auditing complex estimates, but do they rely on specialists for the right reasons? We examine whether specialists' high social status influences auditor assessments of specialists' competence and, in turn, auditors' conclusions about the reasonableness of client...

Audit and tax professionals tend to make judgments consistent with their client's preference, even when that preference is aggressive. Client preference affects judgments directly and indirectly, via information search. In particular, professionals focus their search on information that supports...

Prior research demonstrates that forecast optimism is, in part, a consequence of analysts' cognitive reactions to the scenarios managers use to communicate future plans. In two experiments, we examine whether counter-explanation (explaining why managers' plans could fail) reduces...

Prior research indicates that audit and tax professionals' judgments are influenced by their client's preferences, both directly and indirectly (via information search). In an experiment with tax professionals as participants, we examine whether high practice risk (i.e., exposure to monetary and...

Prior research demonstrates that forecast optimism is, in part, a consequence of analysts' cognitive reactions to the scenarios managers use to communicate future plans. In two experiments, we examine whether counter-explanation (explaining why managers' plans could fail) reduces...

Tax professionals are responsible for objectively evaluating tax authorities and evidence relevant to their application and for serving as client advocates. We predict that practice risk, i.e., exposure to monetary and nonmonetary costs of making inappropriate recommendations, will affect tax...

Prior research indicates that individuals acting as jurors experience outcome effects in audit negligence litigation. That is, jurors evaluate auditors more harshly in light of negative outcomes, even when audit quality is constant. I posit that outcome effects in this setting are caused by...