Behavioral Economics und das Entscheidungsverhalten des Wirtschaftsprüfers - Ein Forschungsüberblick

In psychological and economic experiments, systematic deviations from rationality - so-called biases - have been observed. Such biases were also researched extensively in the auditing research in the US. The goal of this paper is to give an overview of this research and to show possible research opportunities and also its limitations. The paper discusses in its main part the most important biases by explaining them in short examples, demonstrating how they deviate from the rationality assumption and showing their importance for judgment and decision-making in auditing. Potential implications of the special environment in auditing as expertise or time pressure on the biases are also addressed. The paper finishes by discussing exemplarily possible positive and normative analyses of auditing.