The Impact of Machiavellianism Behavior on Auditor Professional Skepticism: A Test of Personality Psychology Theory

The purpose of this study is to investigate the behavioral characteristics of opportunism (Machiavellianism) on the skepticism of the profession of independent auditors as one of the important components of auditors in detecting significant fraud and distortion in the financial statements. Which can have a negative impact on the judgment and decision of auditors.

This research is an applied research and is one of the descriptive survey research. Required data were collected and analyzed using a questionnaire completed by 466 auditors from the members of Iranian Association of Certified Public, Audit Office, and the Supreme Audit Court. Questionnaire questions consist of two parts, general and specific. The public sector questions include the general characteristics of the respondents including gender, place of employment, level of education, age and occupation. The following standard questionnaires were used for specific questions. 1. Behavioral Characteristics of Opportunism: Christie and Gais (1970) this questionnaire consists of 20 items. The items in this scale have 5 options including strongly disagree, disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree, which are scored from 1 to 5, respectively. 2. Professional Doubt: Hart (2010) this questionnaire consists of 30 items with 6 components. The components of the questioner's mind are measured by 3 items, interruption in judgment by 5 items, knowledge search by 6 items, interpersonal perception by 5 items, self-confidence by 5 items, and self-judgment by 6 items. The items in this scale have 6 options completely disagree, disagree, slightly disagree, slightly agree, agree and strongly agree, which are scored from 1 to 6, respectively.  

he results of this study showed that the behavioral characteristics of opportunism have a significant and negative relationship with the skepticism of auditors. This means that as the level of opportunism in auditors increases, so does their professional skepticism. Other results of this study also indicate that opportunism has a significant and negative relationship with the skepticism of independent auditors. In other words, as the level of opportunism in auditors increases, so does the dimension of the questioning mind, the pause in judgment, the search for knowledge, interpersonal understanding, self-confidence, and self-judgment. The evidence of this research is consistent with the theoretical foundations of the research of Azjen (2005), Danley et al. (2003), Schaefer and Wang (2011), Gosh and Curtin (1996) and Beigi Herchgani et al. (2015). In their research, they concluded that personality-behavioral characteristics affect people's judgment and decision-making, and behavioral disorders, including opportunism, reduce the efficiency and performance of auditors.  

The results of this study show that opportunistic behavioral characteristics in the skepticism of independent auditors reduce the desire and motivation of auditors to collect information and evidence, reduce the proof of management claims in financial statements, reduce independence and impartiality, reduce confidence and motivation of auditors and Decreased mentality and interest of independent auditors.. It is therefore recommended that auditors and supervisory bodies take ethics seriously and by establishing mechanisms that prevent unethical behavior, take an effective step towards improving the economic conditions of the country and thus protecting the public interest.