ABSTRACTIn two incentivized auditing experiments, participants who choose to acquire evidence adjust for the risk revealed by that evidence to a lesser extent than those who obtain the same evidence without investigative action, controlling for the diagnostic value of evidence. This finding follows from mental accounting and information choice theories that, in combination, predict that choosing to undertake effortful investigation can magnify aversion to costly adjustments. In our first experiment, effort choice reduces adjustments only when the same participants make both decisions, not when different participants make these decisions in noninteractive pairs. We observe consistent findings in a second experiment that pairs all participants and allows interaction, with effort choice reducing adjustments only when participants responsible for evidence perceive high involvement in the adjustment decisions made by their paired counterparts. A potential implication of our study is that emerging audit technologies that facilitate evidence collection could also enhance auditor independence.

中文翻译：

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寻求审计证据是否会妨碍审计调整的意愿？


摘要在两个激励审计实验中，选择获取证据的参与者对证据所揭示的风险的调整程度低于那些未经调查行动而获得相同证据的参与者，并控制了证据的诊断价值。这一发现是根据心理账户和信息选择理论得出的，这些理论结合起来预测，选择进行努力的调查会加剧对代价高昂的调整的厌恶。在我们的第一个实验中，只有当相同的参与者做出这两个决定时，努力选择才会减少调整，而不是当不同的参与者在非交互配对中做出这些决定时。我们在第二个实验中观察到了一致的结果，该实验将所有参与者配对并允许互动，只有当负责证据的参与者认为他们配对的同行做出的调整决策高度参与时，努力选择才会减少调整。我们研究的一个潜在意义是，促进证据收集的新兴审计技术也可以增强审计师的独立性。