Author ORCID Identifier
Date Available
3-27-2025
Year of Publication
2023
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Document Type
Doctoral Dissertation
College
Business and Economics
Department/School/Program
Accountancy
First Advisor
Dr. Benjamin Commerford
Second Advisor
Dr. David Ziebart
Abstract
Accounting practitioners and regulators have recently focused efforts toward increasing the efficiency of management review controls (MRCs), including the evaluation of complex accounting estimates. Although increasing cognitive effort (i.e., conscious deliberation) is an intuitively appealing strategy for improving decision quality, Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) suggests that a period of unconscious thought is a more beneficial strategy in complex domains. Drawing on UTT, I predict and find across two studies that prompting accounting practitioners to engage in unconscious thought facilitates the recognition of patterns of bias within management provided estimates, resulting in higher quality assessments of fair value estimates. My findings contribute to practice by identifying a theory-driven intervention that improves accounting practitioners’ critical thinking and decision quality when evaluating complex estimates.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.045
Recommended Citation
Holman, Blake, "Using Unconscious Thought to Improve Evaluations of Complex Accounting Estimates" (2023). Theses and Dissertations--Accountancy. 20.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/accountancy_etds/20
