Abstract
The Social Identity Theory is employed to investigate whether the negligence verdicts of jurors who strongly identify with their profession are more lenient towards auditors that identify with the profession. Social Identity Theory predicts that groups will judge others less harshly if they identify with the group, unless the violation is so egregious that it disgraces the group. A 2 x 2 between-subjects experiment manipulates jurors’ social identities and auditor effort to investigate jurors’ perceptions of auditor negligence following an audit in which there was an independence violation. Contrary to expectations, juror negligence verdicts were not significantly influenced by their group identity. Further analysis reveals that no significant difference exists when profession-identifying jurors assign negligence verdicts to profession- and non-profession identifying auditors. The results have academic, regulatory and practical implications.
Recommended Citation
Wilson, Reginald
(2018)
"Juror Bias and Auditor Negligence: Evidence Using the Social Identity Theory,"
Journal of Business, Industry, and Economics: Vol. 23, Article 10.
Available at:
https://roar.una.edu/jobie/vol23/iss1/10