1 Because auditor indepen- dence is a central concept in the accounting profession, the present study focuses on the commitment that professional accountants manifest towards auditor independence. Specifically, indepen- dence commitment is defined as the extent to which the individual accountant considers auditor indepen- dence as a key attribute of the profession, and believes that regulatory standards of auditor independence (issued by the profession and/or external regulatory agencies) should be rigorously binding and enforced in the public accounting domain.