Behavioral aspects of auditing and the auditor’s decision-making as a key cognitive process in the case of fraud
Behavioral aspects of auditing and the auditor’s decision-making as a key cognitive process in the case of fraud

Summary/Abstract: Fraud is like a disease for organizations. One of the key people meant to detect fraud is the auditor. A detected fraud is the most stressful case, and therefore, there are written standards of actions. According to professional standards, an auditor should have enough “professional skepticism,” which should help to organize his way of thinking and his actions. However, even such organized people are only people; human nature influences their behavior. The aim of the paper is to show the behavioral aspect of auditing and to find out how cognitive characteristics of decision-making could help auditors detect and investigate fraud. This theoretical research is a theory-driven interpretative literature review, based on a synthesis of the academic literature. The key finding of the research is that the cognitive process plays a key role in auditing because processes of judgment and decision-making are basic cognitive processes. When fraud is detected, according to cognitive theory, the auditor recalls the last experience of fraud detection, forms a judgment, and then makes a decision based on this experience. Trying to provide the best solution for the case, it could be relevant to share the experience and opinions among auditors.

• Details
• Contents