What is judgment and decision-making research in accounting? To answer this question, we must first define judgments and decisions The term judgment typically refers to forming an idea, opinion, or estimate about an object, an event, a state, or another type of phenomenon. Judgments tend to take the form of predictions about the future or an evaluation of a current state of affairs. The term decision refers to making up one's mind about the issue at hand and taking a course of action. Decisions typically follow judgments and involve a choice among various alternatives based on judgments about those alternatives and, possibly, preferences for factors such as risk and money. In other words, Judgments reflect one's beliefs, and decisions may reflect both beliefs and preferences. For example, an auditor makes a judgment about whether financial statements contain material misstatements. Then,
he or she makes a decision about what type of audit opinion to issue based on his or her judgment about
misstatements
and preferences regarding client retention and litigation.