Explaining Behavioral Tendencies in Fraudulent Financial Reporting: A Psychological Theory Test of Behavior Stability

Document Type : Original Article

Author
Bahman Banimahd
Assistant Professor , Accounting Department, Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch
Abstract
This paper, based on the theory of behavioral stability, studies fraudulent financial reporting based on the psychological characteristics of individuals. This theory holds that managers' behavioral tendencies, including emotions and personal emotions, will also have a direct impact on their professional performance. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine the psychological characteristics of individuals' decision making in the context of fraudulent financial reporting. The sample consisted of 259 accounting experts, accounting chiefs and financial managers of listed companies. The research method was survey and the data were collected by questionnaire. Data analysis and hypothesis testing are performed on the basis of structural equations. Evidence from this study shows that negative moods have a positive and significant effect on both types of fraudulent, meaningful and unimportant financial reporting. But positive moods only have a significant effect on fraudulent financial reporting with the assumption of significance, and not on the model without significance. Also the findings of this study show that sensation seeking has a significant effect on both models. Finally, the results of this study confirm that managers with a high tendency to gambling they are more sentiment to fraudulent financial reporting in both significant and unimportant models.
Keywords
Fraudulent Financial Reporting
Individual moods
sentiment Seeking and gambling Tendency
Theory of Behavioral Stability Psychology
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