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Motivated by ongoing calls for auditors to exercise an elevated level of professional skepticism, this paper aims to examine the relationship between basic human values (values) and an underlying skeptical disposition (trait skepticism). Understanding the values that are associated with levels of trait skepticism will help in the design of audit environments that make the application of an underlying skeptical disposition more likely.

A survey was administered in which 140 postgraduate auditing students responded to the Schwartz value survey to measure the relative importance of different values, and the Hurtt trait skepticism scale to measure trait skepticism. The relative importance of the ten values was regressed against trait skepticism.

This study finds that the importance placed in the values of tradition and power, relative to other values, is negatively associated with levels of trait skepticism.

The use of postgraduate auditing students as participants may limit the generalizability of the study’s findings.

Qualified by the need for future research to test the generalizability of the findings to an audit practitioner sample, the results of this study suggest that auditors with higher levels of trait skepticism may experience negative affect in environments that emphasize values of power and tradition. To the extent that current audit environments emphasize tradition and power, the results may help explain why trait skepticism is not consistently reflected in audit judgments and actions.

The affective implications of the environment within which auditors exercise professional skepticism is emerging as an important area by which to understand and improve audit quality. By identifying the values that those with a high skeptical disposition place relatively less importance in, this study informs an understanding of the circumstances where an underlying skeptical disposition is more or less likely to be reflected in auditor judgments and actions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how levels of trait professional skepticism (i.e. professional skepticism based on personal traits) and different experiences with a specific hypothetical client (i.e. positive, negative, or none) affect audit judgments.

The paper is based on an experiment with auditing students, with one manipulated variable and one measured variable.

The results show that initial expectations are driven primarily by client experience except when none is present (then driven by trait), but the experience has greater influence on low trait skeptics. Participants who are more skeptical are more sensitive to fraud evidence at the evidence evaluation stage.

The study uses student participants which reduces generalizability of the results to other populations. However, students are advantageous participants for examining pure trait skepticism unaffected by audit experience.

The paper examines audit judgments at multiple stages of the audit decision‐making process to determine the impact on each stage. The results of this paper support concerns that audit quality is affected both by trait professional skepticism and prior client‐specific experiences.

Understanding the factors that impact the audit quality of work performed by affiliated offshore entities has become imperative for US accounting firms. The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the role that cultural differences have on the trait professional skepticism mindset of future auditors in the USA and India.

The authors use the Hurtt (2010) Professional Skepticism Scale (HPSS) to evaluate the role that culture has on the trait professional skepticism mindset of a sample of future auditors in the USA and India.

The authors identify three distinct dimensions of trait professional skepticism embedded in the HPSS. The research finds no significant differences between USA and Indian auditing students on the evidential “trust but verify” dimension of trait professional skepticism; however, US students score higher on the behavioral “presumptive doubt” and self-reliance dimensions.

Given culture significantly influences trait professional skepticism, firms and regulators should be highly cognizant of the type of work that is being sent offshore. Firms using affiliated offshore entities should also ensure that robust integration practices are used to facilitate the level of professional skepticism necessary to perform a quality audit.

By identifying three separate dimensions in the HPSS, the research takes an important step in understanding the factors that impact the quality of audit procedures performed in a critical affiliated offshore entity for US-based accounting firms.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between audit partner perfectionism traits and audit quality in Egypt, emphasizing the mediating role of professional skepticism.

A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a questionnaire and scenario-based questions for audit partners with secondary data from audited financial statements. The relationships between study variables were tested using structural equation modeling.

Results denote a significant indirect effect between partner perfectionism traits and audit quality through their professional skepticism. Perfectionism has a significant positive impact on partner professional skepticism, and skepticism influences audit quality.

This study offers opportunities to enhance financial reporting quality, allowing investors to confidently allocate financial market resources. Audit firms can consider the personality traits of auditors in the selection process, team formation and designing training programs. Regulators can use these findings to consider the role of personality traits and attitudes in audit quality when developing regulations and quality assurance systems in Egypt.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have examined the effect of partners’ perfectionism traits on professional skepticism and audit quality, especially in Egypt. By examining audit partners, who shape the tone at the top and are accountable for reputation, this study adds a novel dimension to understanding the impact of their qualities on audit outcomes. Moreover, combining survey and secondary data allows us to link these qualities with audit quality, objectively testing our hypotheses.

Drawing on the literature from cognitive neuroscience and auditing research on professional skepticism (PS), this paper identifies new research questions, determinants, and theories that may resolve current problem areas in PS research. We identify the following PS research areas that neuroscientific perspectives can potentially improve: 1) theory, 2) trust, 3) trait and state skepticism, 4) deception/fraud detection, and 5) skeptical judgment and action. The paper concludes with a discussion of the critical question of whether integrating a neuroscientific perspective in PS research is worthwhile and provides further direction for future research.

This paper aims to study the effects of two different types of state skepticism prompts, as well as the effect of the trait of professional skepticism on auditor cognitive performance in a hypothesis-testing task. It examines the effect of a professional skepticism prompt, based on the presumptive doubt view of professional skepticism, as well as the effect of a cheater-detection prompt, based on social contracts theory.

Seventy-eight audit students and 85 practising auditors examine an audit case and determine the evidence needed to test the validity of a management's assertion in a Wason selection task. The experiment manipulates the presence of a professional skepticism prompt and the presence of a cheater-detection prompt. The personality trait of professional skepticism is measured with Hurtt's scale.

The presence of a professional skepticism prompt improves cognitive performance in the sample of students, but not in the sample of auditors. The presence of a cheater-detection prompt has no significant effect on performance in the student or auditor sample. The personality trait of professional skepticism is a significant predictor of cognitive performance in the sample of students but not in the sample of auditors.

Results suggest that increasing the states of skepticism or suspicion toward the client firm's management may have no incremental effect on the normative hypothesis testing performance of experienced auditors. However, actively encouraging skeptical mindsets in novice auditors is likely to improve their cognitive performance in hypothesis testing tasks.

The study is the first to examine the joint effects of two specific types of state skepticism prompts, a professional skepticism prompt and a cheater-detection prompt, as well as the effect of the personality trait of professional skepticism, on auditor cognitive performance in a hypothesis-testing task. The study contributes to the literature by bringing together the psychology theory of social contracts and auditing research on professional skepticism, to examine auditors' reasoning performance in a hypothesis-testing task.

This chapter examines the relationship between four variables indicating ethical disposition – ethical sensitivity, ethical reasoning, concern for others, and egocentrism – and trait professional skepticism (PS) (Hurtt, 2010) among 119 first-year auditors. While there has been research addressing the link between ethical dispositional factors and state PS in auditors (e.g., Shaub & Lawrence, 1996), there is a lack of research into the link between ethical dispositional factors and trait PS (Hurtt, 2010). The results indicate that trait PS is higher in first-year auditors with higher levels of ethical reasoning, concern for others, and egocentrism. More ethically sensitive auditors do not demonstrate higher levels of trait PS, however. The results provide evidence that auditors’ ethical dispositions influence their ability to have the mindset necessary to carry out the investor protection role that requires adequate PS.

Professional skepticism has been an essential part of every audit. Recently, Hurtt (2010) introduced the concept of trait skepticism (an enduring aspect of an individual's psychology). The current study examines trait professional skepticism using a sample of accounting students and investigates its potential relationship with ethical perception of earnings management actions. Results indicate that more skeptical students viewed earnings management actions as more unethical compared to less skeptical students. More specifically, higher skeptics viewed earnings management actions that benefited the manager and accounting manipulations as more unethical than actions that benefited the firm and were considered normal operating decisions. These results offer guidance to accounting instructors as they emphasize ethical issues in the classroom and are important to Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms as they train their auditors in professional skepticism.

This study aims to examine the association between Iranian auditors' narcissism and the auditors' professional skepticism.

The authors' sample is comprised of 355 professional auditors working in the private and public sectors in Iranian firms in 2022. The authors use cross-sectional multivariate regression as the main methodology, along with the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique.

The authors find that a higher level of narcissism leads to a greater level of professional skepticism among auditors, which ultimately can enhance the quality of the audit process. The results provided via the robustness tests also supported this finding.

The authors' findings further the understanding of the role of narcissistic personality traits in improving professional skepticism among auditors of an Islamic and emerging country. In addition, audit firms and audit partners can also consider the findings of this study and enhance the effectiveness of audit processes by assigning appropriate employees with certain personalities to specific tasks.

This paper aims to clarify a situational factor that might interfere with the intended outcome of a cause-related marketing (CRM) ad on social network sites (SNSs): statements about the motivation of the sponsoring company for supporting a social cause. This study also aims to explore how highly skeptical consumers and consumers with lower levels of skepticism differ in their responses to CRM ads.

In Study 1, a total of 409 college students took part in an online experiment through Qualtrics. The online experiment followed a 2 (statement of motivations: both of firm and public benefits vs public benefit only) × 2 (skepticism: high vs low) between-subjects design. Skepticism was determined post hoc as a two-category variable to analyze its effect on the relationship between the statement of motivations and attribution. In Study 2, a total of 533 adults took part in an online experiment. Multigroup analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

This study found that firm’s acknowledgments of firm-serving motivation, as well as of public-serving motivation, could be an effective marketing strategy to reduce consumer skepticism about the firm’s motives. The procedure by which a consumer perceived and evaluated the motives of a company determined the effectiveness of the company’s CRM ads. Temporary state of skepticism induced by an attributional thinking process is found to play a significant role in diminishing perceived corporate credibility. Finally, a consumer’s perception of a company’s credibility has a great impact on their intention to join that company’s brand page.

This study advances theories about consumers’ defensive mechanisms that can help predict their favorable responses to the brand pages featuring CRM on SNSs.

This study extends previous literature by directing academic attention to consumers’ perceived attribution as a theoretical mechanism that can help predict consumers’ favorable responses to brand pages featuring CRM on SNSs. This study also extends previous research on skepticism by showing that consumer skepticism can be either an enduring trait or a temporary state. The findings suggest that marketers may be able to inhibit the development of consumer skepticism by publicly stating the potential firm-serving benefits of its actions.