Financial priming, psychological distance, and recognizing financial misreporting as an ethical issue: The role of financial reporting responsibility

Abstract

Prior research finds that financial priming (thinking about money) results in leniency toward unethical activities. This research suggests that accountants, because of frequent financial priming, may be prone to overlooking unethical acts. Construal level theory research further suggests that psychologically distant events (also common in accounting) may exacerbate financial priming's effects. Across three experiments, we explore the interactive effect of financial priming, psychological distance, and financial reporting responsibility on recognition of financial misreporting as an ethical issue. Consistent with past research, we find that financially (versus neutrally) primed businesspeople without prior financial reporting responsibility are less likely to recognize psychologically distant financial misreporting as an ethical issue. Importantly, however, we find that financially (versus neutrally) primed accountants and other business professionals with financial reporting responsibility consider psychologically distant financial misreporting to be more unethical. Preliminary process evidence suggests that, when exposed to psychologically distant financial misreporting, financially (versus neutrally) primed businesspeople with financial reporting responsibility focus more on protecting those who rely on accurate financial reports than on protecting the company committing the financial misreporting.