The Effect of Understanding on Attitudes to Accounting Variables

Several researchers have attempted to discern attitudes of financial statement users to accounting variables. The surveys have usually involved requesting users to describe their attitude as to the importance of the defined variables to assigned decision making tasks by ranking the variables on an ordinal scale. This note examines whether the understanding of accounting information by respondents affects their description of attitudes; i.e. whether there exists an association between users' understanding of accounting information and the ranks assigned to particular accounting variables. The results indicate a weak association, implying that it may be necessary to control for the level of understanding in future studies of this nature.