Investigating the relationship between temper and professional skepticism in auditors

Audit professionals’ skepticism is one of the behavioral and personality traits that is effective in reducing agency costs, audit quality, and enhancing public confidence. On this basis, it is very important to know the factors contributing to enhancement or degradation of professional skepticism. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between temperaments and the level of professional skepticism of auditors.

The statistical population consisted of auditors working in official accountants’ community of Mashhad in 2018. 147 auditors were selected using simple random sampling. Auditors' professional skepticism and temperament were measured using two valid and reliable instruments. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using multivariate linear regression at 95% significance level.

The results showed that hot and dry temperaments had a significant relationship with the professional skepticism variable (r = 0.15 and p-value = 0.04). Also, cold and wet temperament had a significant relationship with the professional skepticism variable (r = -0.24 and p-value = 0.03). Overall, the findings showed that those with hot and dry temperaments had more professional skepticism and those with cold and wet temperaments had less professional uncertainty.

In conclusion, the findings indicate that temperament affects the level of professional skepticism in auditors.