A Person-Situation Approach to the Examination of Professional Skepticism: Consideration of Time Pressure and Goal Framing

Abstract

Regulators believe increased skepticism improves audit quality (e.g., PCAOB 2011; Frazel 2013), and a lack of skepticism contributes to audit deficiencies (e.g., Doty 2011a, 2011b; PCAOB 2012). Therefore, in order to achieve as great a level of professional skepticism as appropriate in each audit situation, it is important to more thoroughly understand the various influences on skepticism. While prior research suggests personality traits and state (situational) factors influence professional skepticism (e.g., Hurtt 2010; Nelson 2009), this literature tends to focus on either skepticism as a trait (e.g., Hurtt 2010) or state factors that influence skeptical behavior (e.g., Bowlin et al. 2012), rather than viewing state skepticism as a separate component of the attitude of skepticism. In our experiment using professional auditors, we measure and disentangle the trait and state components of professional skepticism, and examine the influence of both on auditor behavior. Furthermore, we examine whether two situational factors, time pressure and goal framing, affect state skepticism. We find that auditors higher in state professional skepticism display a higher level of skeptical behavior, and that an increase in state skepticism has a greater effect on auditors with low trait skepticism than high trait skepticism. We also find a positive relationship between time pressure and state skepticism. We offer conclusions for practice and research.