The Invisible Gorilla: More Dangerous Digitally than on Paper?

• Bassin C., Gajewski J.-F. Heimann M. et Meunier L.

Abstract

As in many other industries, audit is moving toward increased digitalization, a situation that has only been hastened by the pandemic. We test whether auditors make more mistakes when working digitally through an experiment mimicking a sales cut-off test. In particular, some of the invoices auditors had to check in the experiment were issued by a company different from the one being audited, “Gorilla Corporation”. The name, logo, and legal details differed from the company being audited and which should have issued the invoice. Auditors working digitally were about twice less likely to detect the anomaly. Moreover, Eye-tracking reveals that even auditors who missed the gorilla look directly at its location for more than a second on average. Our study thus reveals that inattentional blindness is stronger when working digitally compared to on paper. In our experiment, this leads auditors to perform worse when working digitally. We also find evidence pointing to a halo effect, albeit the effect does not differ between the paper and digital conditions. Overall, as a move back to paper is unlikely and probably undesirable, we discuss several potential solutions to remedy the increased inattentional blindness brought about by digital work, including the use of nudges.

Keywords: Inattentional blindness – Audit Quality – Digitalization – Halo Effect – Eye-tracking