IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/advacc/v37y2017icp85-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of self-deception and professional skepticism on perceptions of ethicality

Author

Listed:
  • Agarwalla, Sobhesh Kumar
  • Desai, Naman
  • Tripathy, Arindam

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of two contradictory psychological traits, self-deception (SD) and professional skepticism (PS), on individuals' assessment of ethicality of various earnings management choices. Whereas, SD allows individuals to reduce cognitive dissonance arising from self-serving unethical behavior, PS would force individuals to question such self-serving behavior and, as a result, could make them less likely to act unethically. Our results indicate that SD, PS, and participant type significantly affected the participants' ethicality ratings. Managers exhibiting high (low) SD and low (high) PS view the earnings management techniques that were generally considered to be unethical, as relatively more (less) ethical. However, the SD and PS scores of accountants are not significantly related to their ethicality ratings. This result could be driven by the fact that accountants tend to have greater exposure to information that emphasizes ethics (professional standards and education) and hence psychological traits have a lesser effect on their ethicality ratings.

Suggested Citation

  • Agarwalla, Sobhesh Kumar & Desai, Naman & Tripathy, Arindam, 2017. "The impact of self-deception and professional skepticism on perceptions of ethicality," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 85-93.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:advacc:v:37:y:2017:i:c:p:85-93
    DOI: 10.1016/j.adiac.2017.04.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882611016302498
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.adiac.2017.04.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ford, Gary T & Smith, Darlene B & Swasy, John L, 1990. "Consumer Skepticism of Advertising Claims: Testing Hypotheses from Economics of Information," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(4), pages 433-441, March.
    2. Stelios Zyglidopoulos & Peter Fleming & Sandra Rothenberg, 2009. "Rationalization, Overcompensation and the Escalation of Corruption in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 65-73, January.
    3. Herron, Terri L. & Gilbertson, David L., 2004. "Ethical Principles vs. Ethical Rules: The Moderating Effect of Moral Development on Audit Independence Judgments," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 499-523, July.
    4. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    5. Jacob Rose, 2007. "Corporate Directors and Social Responsibility: Ethics versus Shareholder Value," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(3), pages 319-331, July.
    6. Ponemon, Lawrence A., 1992. "Ethical reasoning and selection-socialization in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 239-258.
    7. Northcraft, Gregory B. & Neale, Margaret A., 1987. "Experts, amateurs, and real estate: An anchoring-and-adjustment perspective on property pricing decisions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 84-97, February.
    8. Castro, Barry, 1994. "Business Ethics: Knowing Ourselves," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 181-190, April.
    9. Pamela Murphy & M. Dacin, 2011. "Psychological Pathways to Fraud: Understanding and Preventing Fraud in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(4), pages 601-618, July.
    10. Guiral, Andres & Rodgers, Waymond & Ruiz, Emiliano & Gonzalo-Angulo, Jose A., 2015. "Can expertise mitigate auditors’ unintentional biases?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 105-117.
    11. Taylor, Shannon G. & Pattie, Marshall W., 2014. "When Does Ethical Leadership Affect Workplace Incivility? The Moderating Role of Follower Personality," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(4), pages 595-616, October.
    12. Breda Sweeney & Bernard Pierce & Donald F. Arnold, 2013. "The impact of perceived ethical intensity on audit-quality-threatening behaviours," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 112-137, April.
    13. Cherry, John & Fraedrich, John, 2002. "Perceived risk, moral philosophy and marketing ethics: mediating influences on sales managers' ethical decision-making," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(12), pages 951-962, December.
    14. Murphy, Pamela R., 2012. "Attitude, Machiavellianism and the rationalization of misreporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 242-259.
    15. Baker, Thomas L. & Hunt, Tammy G. & Andrews, Martha C., 2006. "Promoting ethical behavior and organizational citizenship behaviors: The influence of corporate ethical values," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 849-857, July.
    16. Merchant, Kenneth A. & Rockness, Joanne, 1994. "The ethics of managing earnings: An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 79-94.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Naman Desai, 2020. "Understanding the Theoretical Underpinnings of Corporate Fraud," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 45(1), pages 25-31, March.
    2. Horvat Robert, 2018. "Impact of Selected Personality Traits on Accountants’ Attitudes Toward Accounts Manipulation: Evidence From Slovenia," Naše gospodarstvo/Our economy, Sciendo, vol. 64(3), pages 23-35, September.
    3. Desai, Naman & Jain, Shailendra Pratap & Jain, Shalini & Tripathy, Arindam, 2020. "The impact of implicit theories of personality malleability on opportunistic financial reporting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 258-265.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agarwalla, Sobhesh Kumar & Desai, Naman & Tripathy, Arindam, 2015. "The Impact of Psychological Traits on Judgments Related to Ethics," IIMA Working Papers WP2015-03-08, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    2. Christian Hauser, 2019. "Fighting Against Corruption: Does Anti-corruption Training Make Any Difference?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 281-299, September.
    3. W. Robert Knechel & Natalia Mintchik, 2022. "Do Personal Beliefs and Values Affect an Individual’s “Fraud Tolerance”? Evidence from the World Values Survey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 463-489, May.
    4. Lamar Pierce & Jason Snyder, 2015. "Unethical Demand and Employee Turnover," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(4), pages 853-869, November.
    5. Patrick Krieger & Carsten Lausberg, 2021. "Entscheidungen, Entscheidungsfindung und Entscheidungsunterstützung in der Immobilienwirtschaft: Eine systematische Literaturübersicht [Decisions, decision-making and decisions support systems in r," Zeitschrift für Immobilienökonomie (German Journal of Real Estate Research), Springer;Gesellschaft für Immobilienwirtschaftliche Forschung e. V., vol. 7(1), pages 1-33, April.
    6. Nadia Smaili & Paulina Arroyo, 2019. "Categorization of Whistleblowers Using the Whistleblowing Triangle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 95-117, June.
    7. Viswanath Venkatesh, 2000. "Determinants of Perceived Ease of Use: Integrating Control, Intrinsic Motivation, and Emotion into the Technology Acceptance Model," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 11(4), pages 342-365, December.
    8. Desai, Naman & Jain, Shailendra Pratap & Jain, Shalini & Tripathy, Arindam, 2020. "The impact of implicit theories of personality malleability on opportunistic financial reporting," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 258-265.
    9. Ling L. Harris & Scott B. Jackson & Joel Owens & Nicholas Seybert, 2022. "Recruiting Dark Personalities for Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 193-218, June.
    10. Ivan Bozhikin & Nikolay Dentchev, 2018. "Discovering a Wilderness of Regulatory Mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility: Literature Review," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 145-174, June.
    11. Mark E. Lokanan & Prerna Sharma, 2023. "Two Decades of Accounting Fraud Research: The Missing Meso-Level Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, September.
    12. Xiaotao Liu & Arnold Wright & Yi-Jing Wu, 2015. "Managers’ Unethical Fraudulent Financial Reporting: The Effect of Control Strength and Control Framing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 295-310, June.
    13. Reckers, Philip & Samuelson, Melissa, 2016. "Toward resolving the debate surrounding slippery slope versus licensing behavior: The importance of individual differences in accounting ethical decision making," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 1-16.
    14. Cindy G Grappe & Cindy Lombart & Didier Louis & Fabien Durif, 2021. ""Not tested on animals": How consumers react to cruelty-free cosmetics proposed by manufacturers and retailers?," Post-Print hal-03379593, HAL.
    15. Chiharu Ishida & Woojung Chang & Steve Taylor, 2016. "Moral intensity, moral awareness and ethical predispositions: The case of insurance fraud," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 21(1), pages 4-18, March.
    16. Wu, Xi & Wang, Jun, 2018. "Management's Materiality Criteria of Internal Control Weaknesses and Corporate Fraud: Evidence from China," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-19.
    17. Eddy Cardinaels & Yuping Jia, 2016. "How Audits Moderate the Effects of Incentives and Peer Behavior on Misreporting," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 183-204, May.
    18. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2019. "‘Whistleblowing Triangle’: Framework and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 189-204, November.
    19. repec:pab:wpbsad:12.03 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Waseem Yousaf & Raheel Jamil, 2020. "Does Moral Intensity Affect the Whistleblowing Intentions?," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 2(2), pages 84-99, December.
    21. Elisaveta Sardžoska & Thomas Tang, 2009. "Testing a Model of Behavioral Intentions in the Republic of Macedonia: Differences Between the Private and the Public Sectors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 87(4), pages 495-517, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:advacc:v:37:y:2017:i:c:p:85-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/advances-in-accounting/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.