The effect of time pressure on auditor attention to qualitative aspects of misstatements indicative of potential fraudulent financial reporting

Motivated by recent concern regarding the auditor's role in fraud detection, this study predicts that (1) under time pressure auditors' attention will become focused on the dominant task at the expense of attention to the subsidiary task and (2) the task of accumulating documentary evidence regarding frequency of misstatements will dominate the task of attending to qualitative aspects of misstatements. Results from an experiment were consistent with expectations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.