Independent Auditor Sensitivity to Evidence Reliability.

This study provides empirical evidence regarding whether independent auditors are sensitive to the reliability of audit evidence. Audit evidence reliability was manipulated by varying the expertise of the evidence source. Practicing auditors made a series of independent judgments concerning the true value of a client's uncollectible receivables after being provided with two separate estimates of this amount. The expertise of the source of one estimate, an employee of the client, was varied between treatment groups. In contrast to the findings of previous research [Joyce and Biddle, 1981], the results of this study indicate that independent auditors are sensitive to the reliability of audit evidence. When forming their judgments of the true value of the client's uncollectible receivables, the independent auditors placed more reliance on evidence obtained from the high-expertise source than on evidence obtained from the low-expertise source.