Personal gains, social losses: examining cynicism and cheating in the accounting area in light of utilitarianism

• Autor(a) principal: Nasu, Vitor Hideo
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12136/tde-23062023-183728/
• topic: Accounting; Cheating; Cinismo; Contabilidade; Cynicism; Questionário; Survey; Trapaça; Utilitarianism; Utilitarismo

The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between accounting practitioners trait cynicism and multiple types of cheating in light of utilitarianism. The research design comprises the elaboration of a survey that included questions about cynicism, cheating, moral conflict scenarios (vignettes), social desirability response bias, and personal information. The questionnaire was submitted to two pilot tests (Tests A and B). The definitive version of the survey was approved by an institutional review board and made available via social networks (LinkedIn and Facebook) and websites of accounting regional councils and was available to receive responses from February to April 2022. In all, 331 accounting practitioners participated in the study. For data analysis, the following techniques were used: descriptive statistics, comparative analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, binary regression models, proportion tests, and multinomial regression models. The results indicated that the level of cynicism of accounting professionals is mild to moderate. Therefore, they are professionals who do not have a strong natural inclination to distrust the sincerity of other people\'s actions. Participants also responded that cheating practices are generally unacceptable. This finding is compatible with utilitarianism since cheating behaviors tend to benefit few at the expense of many individuals. Thus, perceiving cheating as unacceptable is consistent with the utilitarian view. Accounting practitioners reported higher rates of cheating in their academic and personal lives, and a significantly lower rate in their professional lives. This result suggests that cheating behavior occurs at different frequencies when professional matters are involved and that the dimension of life can affect the propensity to cheat. Binary regression models produced evidence that trait cynicism is positively associated with active cheating but not passive cheating. Thus, cynical accounting practitioners tend to engage in proactive cheating, rather than engaging in passive cheating. In addition, there is evidence, albeit limited, to support that cynicism is significantly related to cheating in accounting professionals\' personal and academic lives, but not in their professional ones. The low occurrence of cheating in the professional dimension and the level of cynicism (mild to moderate) may represent a possible explanation for this result in professional life. The findings concerning the moral conflict scenarios support that cheating behavior depends on the scenario. For example, most participants would not report additional donation expenses to achieve a reduction in their income tax but would be willing to sell their shares in the capital market based on insider information in order to avoid losses on their investment. Trait cynicism is relevant to modify the chance of how participants respond to some of the studied scenarios. The implications of this work rest on the following points: (i) the level of cynicism of accounting professionals should not be an immediate concern, since it is mild to moderate; (ii) in general, the findings are consistent with utilitarianism insofar as accounting practitioners perceive cheating as unacceptable and as an action that benefits the few at the expense of the many; (iii) cheating occurs more frequently in personal and academic life compared to the professional one, refuting the view that academic and professional behaviors are significantly related; (iv) results may vary depending on the cynicism proxy used. The literature on cynicism in the scope of accounting is still incipient and more studies are needed before recommendations on how to reduce or treat it are made. Research opportunities are provided at the end of the dissertation.