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Gender, attractiveness, and judgment of impropriety: The case of accountants

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  • Shtudiner, Zeev
  • Klein, Galit

Abstract

Gender and attractiveness have been studied as affecting employment, incomes, and politics. We focus on these characteristics in influencing judgments of unethical behavior of accountants. Vignettes involving unethical behavioral were displayed to 4102 subjects in different versions accompanied by the image of the perpetrator. Unethical behavior was judged with more severity if the behavior was illegal than if there had been a violation of professional norms. The same behavior by male accountants was evaluated as more ethical than when undertaken by female accountants. There was however a high beauty premium for women. The greatest tolerance was shown toward plain-looking male accountants, who represent the traditional accountant stereotype whose likelihood of behaving unethically is regarded as low. Our results show compromise of fairness and of equality before the law. We propose explanations for our results based on accountant-stereotype hypothesis.

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  • Shtudiner, Zeev & Klein, Galit, 2020. "Gender, attractiveness, and judgment of impropriety: The case of accountants," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s0176268020300641
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2020.101916
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    15. Debski, Julia & Jetter, Michael & Mösle, Saskia & Stadelmann, David, 2018. "Gender and corruption: The neglected role of culture," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 526-537.
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    Cited by:

    1. Klein, Galit & Shtudiner, Zeev & Zwilling, Moti, 2021. "Uncovering gender bias in attitudes towards financial advisors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 257-273.
    2. Zeev Shtudiner, 2020. "The impact of attractiveness on employability: Gender differences in peer effects," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(8), pages 1613-1620, December.
    3. Zvi, Liza & Shtudiner, Zeev, 2021. "Resume fraud and counterproductive behavior: The impact of narcissism in the labor market," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    4. Ling, Leng & Luo, Danglun & Li, Xiaoxia & Pan, Xintong, 2022. "Looking good by doing good: CEO attractiveness and corporate philanthropy11We thank the co-editor (Suqin Ge) and the referees for many valuable comments and suggestions. We thank Huimin Li and Jing Sh," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Gründler, Klaus & Potrafke, Niklas & Wochner, Timo, 2024. "The beauty premium of politicians in office," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 298-311.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Accountants; Beauty; Gender; Attractiveness; Fairness; Ethics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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