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This study examines the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and the tendency of future accountants to rationalize and engage in occupational fraud.

The study adopts a survey methodology and uses a questionnaire containing a fraud scenario and EI construct to gather data from 225 participants. It performed a Cronbach alpha to assess the measurement parameters consistency of EI and fraud tendency and employed Pearson correlation and regression analysis to test its hypothesis.

The study found that future accountants in Nigeria are emotionally intelligent and have a high fraud tendency. Also, it found a significant and positive association between EI and fraud tendency, suggesting that future accountants that are emotionally intelligent have a higher tendency to rationalize and engage in occupational fraud. In addition, the study found that academic intelligence, a control variable, positively associates with fraud tendency.

The study offers rare insights into the fraud tendency of future accountants, which would benefit the counter fraud community in Nigeria and other developing countries. Recruiters and employers will find the study beneficial in decision-making on job recruitment, placements and moral orientation for prospective accountant employees.

The study is the first to directly associate EI with the fraud tendency of future accountants from a developing country with high fraud profile and underdeveloped counter fraud strategy. Thus, it provides a benchmark for future studies in other developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of selected sociodemographic variables in the ethical decision-making (EDM) process of professional accountants in Nigeria.

The study obtained data from 329 professional accountants with the aid of a structured questionnaire containing four dilemmatic ethical vignettes. The data were analysed using Kendall correlation, Kruskal–Wallis and Jonckheere–Terpstra tests.

The results revealed that upbringing, especially parental discipline, and education are significant sociodemographic determinants of EDM. Religion and experience played little or no significant role in predicting accountants’ EDM in the face of ethical dilemmas.

The study used a questionnaire to measure its variables, which may bias and somewhat inflate the findings. Hence, caution should be applied regarding its conclusion.

The evidence in this study could stimulate policy change and review to include a separate ethics course in the accounting education curriculum, which could enhance the ethics training of future accountants. This is important for countries like Nigeria, where no provision is made for a discrete ethics course in the curriculum for accounting under-graduate education.

The study draws attention to the fact that ethical conduct among professionals and in society could be enhanced through proper upbringing and formal education.

The study adds some uniqueness in focusing on professional accountants in Nigeria, a developing country with high corruption profile and weak government institutions, and, as such, contributes to the limited research output on accounting ethics in developing countries.