An Investigation of Big Five Personality and Propensity to Commit White-Collar Crime
Abstract
Not all pressured, greedy, and opportunistic individuals actually commit white-collar crime. So what exactly is the common denominator for individuals to commit white-collar crime? This study investigates the propensity of an individual to commit white-collar crime and advances personality as an explanatory factor. Questionnaire survey data is collected from 357 undergraduate accounting students in a later year accounting course at a large university in Australia. Personality is measured using the Big Five Inventory. Support is provided for the view that individuals scoring lower in agreeableness and lower in conscientiousness have a higher propensity to commit white-collar crime. While no significant main effect associations emerged for extraversion, neuroticism, or openness to experience, inspection of individual parameter estimates revealed a significant negative association between neuroticism and propensity to commit white-collar crime but only in certain circumstances.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgment
This manuscript has benefited greatly from the recommendations of Donna Bobek Schmitt (editor) and two anonymous reviewers.
Citation
Turner, M.J. (2014), "An Investigation of Big Five Personality and Propensity to Commit White-Collar Crime", Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research (Advances in Accounting Behavioural Research, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 57-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1475-148820140000017002
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited