The Role of Social Dominance, Machiavellianism, and Emotional Manipulation on Profit Management

Investigating the psychological aspects of unethical behaviors is one of the most important issues in the field of accounting and finance. This study aimed to investigate the effect of psychological variables including social dominance, Machiavellianism, and emotional manipulation on profit management. The research was conducted in 2020 by collecting data with Non-Probability sampling method convenience. For this purpose, a sample of 401 accounting experts, accounting heads, and financial managers of the firms listed in the Stock Market was selected. The results were obtained from structural equations. They show that social dominance, emotional manipulation, and Machiavellianism have a positive effect on the willingness towards opportunistic profit management. In the efficient mode of the tendency towards profit management, two variables of social dominance and emotional manipulation have a positive effect on the tendency towards profit management, but the effect of Machiavellianism on this tendency is refuted. Furthermore, Machiavellianism affects profit management positively and indirectly through social dominance and emotional manipulation. The results show that management motivation for profit management is influenced by behavioral, organizational, and psychological characteristics. The research evidence enhances our understanding of the effect of behavioral characteristics of management on decisions on profit management.