Heurystyki i bledy poznawcze jako zrodlo niepowodzen audytu zewnetrznego (Heuristics and cognitive biases as a reason of external audit failures)

Spectacular financial reporting scandals of last years (cases of Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat and others) are usually attributed to conscious actions of auditors. When analyzing the reasons of audit failures scholars point at the lack of independence of auditors, who act against professional ethics and issue opinions which are in line with the expectations of the clients. Psychological studies suggest however, that the main reasons of audit failures are not negligence or conscious corruption, but cognitive biases. The article presents the main cognitive limitations which affect judgment and decision-making process of auditors: heuristics (availability, representativeness and anchoring), overconfidence, escalation of commitment and motivated reasoning. We present structural characteristics which make the auditing industry prone to cognitive biases. We also discuss possible measures aimed at reducing the number of audit failures.