An Assessment of Professional Accountants' Cognitive Reflection Ability

Abstract

In this paper, we map Brazilian professional accountants' cognitive reflection abilities, exploring the demographic characteristics associated with such ability. To operationalize individuals' cognitive reflection ability, we use the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). Our sample consists of 4,902 Brazilian accountants who voluntarily answered an online survey. We analyze data using three ordered logistic regression (ologit) models that provide a good fit for our data set. Our exploratory analysis reveals that male Brazilian accountants tend to be more reflective than their female counterparts. We also find that professional accountants tend to become less reflective, and, consequentially, more impulsive, as they age. Besides that, we present evidence that preparers and managers working for larger companies tend to be less reflective than their counterparts working for smaller firms. Additionally, our results suggest that auditors' scores on CRT are significantly higher than preparers' , analysts' , managers' and professors' scores, raising interesting questions for future research. Our findings contribute not only to the literature in accounting and psychology, but also for practitioners interested in understanding how cognitive reflection abilities relate to demographic characteristics within the accounting field. Since cognitive reflection abilities significantly affect JDM quality, as reported in previous studies, the importance of our findings connects to the remarkable role that JDM plays in several fields of accounting activity.To our knowledge, our study is the first to assess how demographic individual characteristics predict CRT scores looking at professionals that share a background in a very specific area. Besides, we use the largest data set that we are aware of for studies of similar nature.

The role of personality, authoritarianism and cognition in the United Kingdom’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership

“…Turning to numeracy, deductive reasoning and cognitive reflection, we found that, in line with research into fluid intelligence (Tucker-Drob, 2011) and other cognitive abilities (Portugal Barcellos et al, 2016), younger voters outperformed older voters. With respect to cognitive biases, we found that younger voters were less susceptible to Dunning-Kruger and ideologically motivated reasoning than older voters.…”

The effect of cognitive reflection on the efficacy of impression management

“…As a result, it can be stated that the current sample contains neither too many impulsive, nor too many reflective participants, since it contains more reflective participants compared to studies by Frederick (2005), Toplak et al (2011), andViator et al (2014), but more impulsive participants compared to those by Oechssler et al (2009), Hoppe andKusterer (2011), Alós-Ferrer andHügelschäfer (2016) and Barcellos et al (2016).…”

“…On the other hand, the current sample contains more impulsive participants compared to the samples surveyed by other studies, such as those by Oechssler et al (2009), Hoppe andKusterer (2011), andAlós-Ferrer andHügelschäfer (2016), who analyzed samples comprised of students who were given financial compensation (varying from EUR 0.20-5.00 per correct answer). In addition, the current sample contains more impulsive participants compared to that surveyed by Barcellos et al (2016), who did not offer any compensation to participants (their sample of 4,902 accountants in Brazil was comprised of preparers, auditors, and analysts of financial reports, as well as managers and professors). Note that Barcellos et al (2016, p. 235) identified that "auditors presented the highest average CRT score followed by managers, professors, analysts and preparers," which may explain why the current sample (comprised of analysts only) contains more impulsive participants compared to their sample.…”