ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the review of the auditing literature on factors affecting auditors' belief revision. It reviews the factors that are belief formation, confirmation bias, diagnostic content of evidence, expertise, professional scepticism, and motivational and cognitive factors. These factors might affect auditors' initial beliefs of a client's financial statements and the weight they assign to different pieces of confirming and disconfirming evidence. Research in audit decision-making has emphasised the importance of belief formation because of its effect on information search and evaluation. Cognitive factors are related mainly to belief formation and evidence explanations. Prior research in psychology showed that people are usually confirmatory biased. Professional scepticism could be defined as a choice to fulfil the professional auditor's duty to prevent or reduce the harmful consequences of another person's behavior. Motivational factors are expressed in terms of auditors' commitment to their initial beliefs which, in turn, might affect the effectiveness and efficiency of the audit process.
