Many studies have been carried out on the effects of auditor independence over time, and particularly since recent scandals in the accounting world, such as that of 'Enron. However, there are contrasting views on the issue, and my report hopes to critically evaluate the literature written on the subject and explain the views promoted in the articles. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) defines independence as “the absence of situations and relationships that make it likely that a reasonable and informed third party would conclude that objectivity is or could be impaired.” Essentially, you must be completely detached from your feelings for the client to be independent. It is often said that auditors are not independent because of other work they perform, but how many auditors think they are independent without knowing that they are acting within the company's intentions and are not so not independent? We suggest that this is very rare. Problems in auditing actually arise because auditors knowingly work in the interests of their clients, but auditors can find it extremely difficult to remain impartial in their reporting. The point being made is that "the problem lies not in our desire to be unfair, but in our inability to interpret information impartially." Self-serving biases exist because humans are imperfect information processors. (Bazerman et al, 1997, p) This is a very good point with which I completely agree. What they are saying is that a listener is reporting completely unintentionally due to psychological traits that cause people to prioritize their own self-interest when trying to be impartial. This is true in many fields, in teaching for example. Here cl...... middle of paper ...... used for many decades to come. I have discovered many ways to increase independence within the auditing profession and, while I agree with many of them, some seem very far-fetched and/or complicated to implement. implemented. Even being completely independent of the companies, I agree with Bazerman et al. about how human beings always have an unconscious bias in everything they do, which would be virtually impossible to overcome and would mean that listeners could never be truly independent. In my opinion, no amount of government regulation or oversight would be able to solve this mental problem. Although suggesting that government agencies take charge of all audits would increase independence, for the reason stated above, I do not believe it can guarantee complete independence. As long as audits cannot be carried out completely autonomously by machines, this will be the case.