The Effect of Personality Type and Professional ethics on Auditors' Ability to Detect Fraud Using the Theory of Planned Behavior by theRole of Professional Skepticism

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of personality type and professional ethics on the ability of auditors' to detect financial reporting fraud using the theory of planned behavior with respect to the mediating role of professional skepticism. The statistical population of the study includes auditors working in the auditing organization and auditing firms that are members of the Iranian Society of Certified Public Accountants. Using Morgan table, 302 people were selected as the research sample. The method of the present study is descriptive-survey and the tool used in the research is a questionnaire. The structural equation Modeling (SEM) was used to investigate the effect of variables and the partial least squares (PLS) approach was used to analyze the patterns. The results showed that the types of auditors' personality types, professional ethics and professional skepticism, have a positive and significant relationship directly on the auditors' ability to detect financial statements fraud. Also, personality type and professional ethics have an indirect and positive relationship with respect to the mediating role of professional skepticism on the detection of fraud in financial statements.According to the research findings, the more professional skeptics auditors are during the audit, the more willing they are to seek information about the signs of fraud and hence the greater their ability to detect fraud.