The Effects of Independence Allegation on Peer Review Evaluation of Audit Procedures.

Abstract This paper reports the results of a study which examined whether an allegation of lack of independence influenced peer review assessment of audit work quality. Forty-nine experienced auditors reviewed an attestation engagement performed by auditors from a small accounting firm. In one experimental condition (n = 25), each subject was told that the request for peer evaluation was made as a consequence of an allegation that the auditors lacked independence. In the other experimental condition (n = 24), each subject was told that the request was a routine tri-annual peer review. The results supported two hypotheses: (1) knowledge of the allegation negatively influences a peer reviewer's evaluation of the employed audit procedures, and (2) the effect of the allegation on a final assessment of audit quality is attributed primarily to differences in evaluations of those procedures.