Fraud detection: do psychological traits, auditor ethics and professional skepticism make any difference?

Purpose This study aims to examine factors related to human psychological traits that are rarely explored in the auditing literature, specifically the auditor’s personality traits (PTs) and emotional intelligence. The paper investigates the effects of PTs (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism), auditor ethics and professional skepticism on fraud detection. The moderating role of emotional intelligence in these relationships is also examined. Design/methodology/approach The study is carried out based on 340 questionnaires collected from external auditors working in Lebanon. The Smart-PLS4 was used to analyze data and test the research’s hypotheses. Findings The results reveal that fraud detection is negatively affected by neuroticism and positively influenced by conscientiousness, extraversion, auditor ethics and professional skepticism. The outcomes also provide evidence that emotional intelligence moderates the relationships between fraud detection and each of agreeableness, conscientiousness, auditor ethics and professional skepticism. Originality/value To the best of the researcher’s knowledge, this paper is among the first in Lebanon and one of the few that investigate whether auditors’ PTs, ethics and professional skepticism affect fraud detection. Moreover, the present study is the first to examine the moderating impact of emotional intelligence on the relationships between the five addressed PTs and auditors’ ability to detect fraud.