Effects of Professional Skepticism, Competency and Workload Compression on the Ability to Detect Possible Fraud among Government Auditors

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of professional scepticism, competence, and workload compression on an auditor's ability to detect potential fraud. This sample consisted of 149 government auditors from the Indonesian Local Government Inspectorate. Data was gathered through the use of a questionnaire and analysed using the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The findings revealed that internal attribution (professional scepticism and competency) have a significant impact on an auditor's ability to detect the possibility of fraud. Workload compression as an external attribution, did not have a meaningful influence on an auditor's ability to detect probable fraud. Workload reduction was also found to be ineffective in moderating the relationship between internal attribution and an auditor's ability to detect probable fraud. The findings can guide local governments in developing policies aimed at enhancing the role of government auditors in detecting fraud. Keywords: government auditors, professional skepticism, attribution, workload compression

Implicit theories of malleability in machines influence the perception and trust repair of intelligent agent

After an intelligent agent makes an error, trust repair can be attempted to regain lost trust. While several ways are possible, individuals' underlying perception of malleability in machines--implicit theory-- can also influence the agent's trust repair process. In this study, we investigated the influence of implicit theory of machines on intelligent agents' apology after the trust violation. A 2 (implicit theory: Incremental vs. Entity) X 2 (apology attribution: Internal vs. External) between-subject design experiment of simulated stock market investment was conducted (N = 150) via online. Participants were given a situation in which they had to make investment decisions based on the recommendation of an artificial intelligence agent. We created an investment game consist of 40 investment opportunities to see the process of trust development, trust violation, and trust repair. The results show that trust damaged less severely in Incremental rather than Entity implicit theory condition and External rather than internal attribution apology condition after the trust violation. However, trust recovered more highly in Entity-External condition. We discussed both theoretical and practical implications.

Hospital Climate and Peer Report Intention on Adverse Medical Events: Role of Attribution and Rewards

Adverse medical events (AMEs) often occur in the healthcare workplace, and studies have shown that a positive atmosphere can reduce their incidence by increasing peer report intention. However, few studies have investigated the effect and action mechanism therein. We aimed to extend upon these studies by probing into the relationship between hospital climate and peer report intention, along with the mediating effect of attribution tendency and moderating effects of rewards. For this purpose, a cross-sectional survey was administered in a hospital among health professionals. We collected 503 valid questionnaires from health professionals in China and verified the hypothesis after sorting the questionnaires. The results of empirical analysis show that a positive hospital climate significantly induces individual internal attribution tendency, which in turn exerts a positive effect on peer report intention. Contract reward also helps to increase peer report intention, especially for health professionals with an internal attribution tendency. The findings contribute to the literature regarding AME management in hospitals by providing empirical evidence of the necessity for hospital climate and contract reward, and by providing insights to improve their integrated application.

Linking Parental Phubbing to Adolescent Self-Depreciation: The Roles of Internal Attribution and Relationship Satisfaction

Phubbing is suggested to be a new form of social rejection, yet little is known about how people who are being “phubbed” interpret it within different relationships. Based on the social information processing model and the sociometer theory, this cross-sectional study investigated adolescents’ attribution for parental phubbing and its associations with adolescents’ relationship satisfaction and core self-evaluations. With a survey data from 300 Chinese adolescents, ages 12 to 16, a model linking parental phubbing to adolescents’ core self-evaluations was assessed, in which adolescents’ relationship satisfaction was a mediator and adolescents’ internal attribution for parental phubbing was a moderator. Parental phubbing was found to be associated with lower relationship satisfaction among adolescents who tended to internally attribute for it, which was predictive of their lower core self-evaluations.

Influence of Childhood Trauma on Former Prisoners’ Attributional Style and Recidivism in Three Years

This study aimed to verify the mediating effects of attribution style, both external and internal, in the relationship between childhood trauma and former prisoners’ recidivism. In 2017, recidivism data on 235 former prisoners who had received Korea Rehabilitation Agency (KRA)’s housing support service in 2014, and had responded to the childhood traumatic questionnaire and surveys on external and internal attributions, were retrieved from the KRA. The analysis revealed that greater childhood trauma was correlated both with higher external and lower internal attribution. Although the relationship between high childhood trauma and recidivism was significant, no significant relationship appeared between internal/external attribution and recidivism. Further, the analysis did not confirm the mediating effect of attribution on the relationship between childhood trauma and recidivism. This indicates that traumatic experiences during childhood increase former prisoners’ external attribution, lower internal attribution, and lead to a higher probability of recidivism. These results demonstrate that interventions on childhood trauma may be effective in lowering recidivism because childhood trauma plays a key role in the former prisoners’ reoffending and attributions that may influence the interpretation of their criminal behavior.

Th e Eff ect of Attribution on Athlete Scandals: Consumer Responses toward Scandalized Athletes and Endorsements

The purpose of the current study, drawing on attribution theory, was to investigate consumers’ attribution process and its impact on their responses to a scandalized athlete and endorsement. The results of the experiment indicate that the distinctiveness of an athlete scandal prompts external attribution while having a negative impact on internal attribution. Additionally, the consistency of an athlete scandal triggers internal attribution. Moreover, the results show that internal (external) attribution has direct negative (positive) impact on attitude toward the scandalized athlete. Lastly, the results show that consumers’ attribution type indirectly determines the consumer responses toward the troubled athlete and endorsement perception. Findings of the current study provide empirical evidence to explain what informational cues consumers utilize when making causal inferences and how such causal inferences subsequently affect the consumer responses. Th e current study also provides marketing managers with useful implications to make informed decisions in the athlete transgression context.

Core Self-Evaluations, Self-Leadership, and the Self-Serving Bias in Managerial Decision Making: A Laboratory Experiment

The self-leadership construct has received great attention from scholars over the last 40 years due to its capacity to influence personal effectiveness. However, despite strongly influencing individuals’ self-efficacy, performed studies did not determine whether self-leadership is connected, and how, with the Core-Self Evaluation (CSE) trait—a complex personality disposition based on self-efficacy, self-esteem, locus of control, and emotional stability—that has been found impacting decision-making processes within organizations. Moreover, it has not been identified whether individuals with a high level of self-leadership are more prone to be victims of some cognitive biases in decision-making processes, such as the internal attribution of successes and external attribution of failures (i.e., Self-Serving Bias, SSB) that are usually led by the strong belief of individuals in their own capacities. The outlined gaps can be substantiated by the following two research questions: “How is self-leadership related with CSE?” and “How does self-leadership influence the attribution of successes/failures?”. To answer these questions, the following were identified and analyzed for 93 executives: (i) the tendency in the attribution of successes and failures, (ii) the CSE, and (iii) their self-leadership level. Results show that: (i) a high level of CSE is connected with high levels of self-leadership; (ii) high levels of self-leadership bring individuals to the internal attribution of successes and external attribution of failures. This work reinforces the stream of (the few) studies that considers a high level of CSE and self-leadership as not always being desirable for managerial decision-making processes and consequent performance. This paper aims to enrich the debate concerning the relations between, on the one hand, self-leadership and, on the other hand, personality traits between self-leadership and decision making.

Socioeconomic Status and Cultural Difference

Socioeconomic status (SES) is a multidimensional construct based on access to material resources and one’s own rank relative to others in a social hierarchy. It fundamentally shapes individuals’ psychological and behavioral tendencies. In many ways, socioeconomic variation parallels East–West cultural dynamics. Like East Asian cultures, lower SES fosters interdependence, a reduced striving for personal choice, holistic thinking, and the attribution of events and behavior to external causes. In contrast, similar to Western cultures, higher SES supports independence, a strong desire for control, self-expression through choice, analytic thinking, and internal attribution. SES has also been found to shape additional psychological tendencies. Because limited access to resources and education makes it necessary to rely on other people, lower SES has been shown to be linked to a greater understanding of others’ emotions and a tendency to act altruistically. Although the evidence is still limited, this article describes what is known about the simultaneous influence of SES and culture. Some studies have explored similar SES effects across cultures. However, reflecting the variation in the dominant ideas and practices shared among people within sociocultural contexts, some studies have suggested that socioeconomic contexts elicit different psychological processes across national cultures. Higher-SES individuals especially seem to adjust themselves to culturally sanctioned ideas and practices. The article suggests directions for future research that will enhance our understanding of the interplay between SES and national cultures.

Consumer Response to Perceived Hypocrisy in Corporate Social Responsibility Activities

Companies may be confused by consumers’ perceptions of hypocrisy related to corporate social responsibility activities. This study investigates the mechanism of consumer response to perceived hypocrisy and determines that internal attribution and negative emotion play vital roles. The findings may be summarized as follows. First, the consumers’ internal attribution of corporate hypocrisy increases the perceived hypocrisy. Second, the consumers’ internal attribution of corporate hypocrisy also increases their negative emotions. Third, consumers’ perceptions of hypocrisy intensify their negative emotions. Fourth, the negative emotions of consumers negatively influence their attitude toward companies. Finally, consumers’ negative emotions increase their negative behavior. The findings demonstrate that the influence of perceived hypocrisy on consumers’ attitude and behavior is affected by negative emotion. Consumers’ internal attribution of corporate hypocrisy affects their perceptions of hypocrisy, prompting negative emotions. The psychological and behavioral mechanism of consumer response to perceived hypocrisy is discussed, thus contributing to the study of corporate hypocrisy.