This book describes the current state of judgment and decision–making research in the field of accounting and auditing and suggests possible directions for such research in the future. It is part of the “shelf–of–books” series of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making. The purpose of the series is to consolidate much of what is known in the field of judgment and decision making, and to make this knowledge accessible to a wide range of readers. Consistent with this broad goal, this particular book is intended to play two different roles for two different audiences.

The first audience is accounting and auditing researchers who are active, or might wish to become active, in this research area – particularly younger members of this group, such as new faculty and doctoral students. For this audience, the book is intended to provide state–of–the–art coverage of judgment and decision–making research in accounting and auditing and to set the stage for further work over the next several years. Consequently, each chapter contains a wealth of material about what currently is known in the particular area covered in the chapter and the authors' opinions about this area (what it contributes to knowledge, where research should or should not go from here, etc.). In this respect, the book seeks to document the development of the field to date, to provide some coherence to a diverse and fragmented research literature, and to influence future research directions.