The Impact of Ego Depletion and Trait Skepticism on Auditor Decision-Making in a High Accountability Environment

• In Event: Risk Assessment and Planning Judgments

Abstract

Recent research finds that ego depletion damages auditor auditor performance (Bhaskar et al. 2016; Hurley 2017; Hurley 2019; Kremin 2014; Mullis and Hatfield 2018). However, prior experimental research on ego depletion has been set in low accountability environments. This is important as Hurley (2015) notes that motivation can counteract the effect of depletion on auditors’ judgments and decision- making. We contend that accountability acts as a motivator, altering whether and how depletion impacts auditors’ judgments. Specifically, we hypothesize that trait skepticism will be associated with audit judgment when not depleted, but that trait skepticism will not be associated with audit judgment when depleted. Instead, when depleted, we expect audit judgments will be more conservative in an attempt to conform to the presumed views of reviewers. We test our hypothesis with an experiment involving a risk assessment task. Results from the experiment support our hypothesis and provide new insight into whether depletion alters auditor judgments and suggest that depletion does not necessarily damage auditor performance.

Authors

• Amy Donnelly, Clemson University

• Steve Kaplan, Arizona State University - Tempe

• Jeremy Vinson, Clemson University