The Effect of Investor Sentiment on the Likelihood of Misstatement of Financial Statements and Auditor Conservatism

Investors in the capital market sometimes exhibit emotional and irrational behavior, which can impact two groups of individuals. On one hand, company managers may act on their opportunistic motives when observing this emotional atmosphere. On the other hand, auditors may underestimate their legal risk and reduce the number of content tests they perform, resulting in a decrease in their fees. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of investors' sentiments on the probability of misstatement of financial statements and the conservatism of auditors in companies listed on the Iranian IFB stock exchange. A sample of 51 companies listed on the Iranian IFB stock exchange between 2013 and 2020 was selected, and multivariate regression and logit regression were used to test the research hypotheses. The results of the study indicate that investor sentiment does not significantly impact the likelihood of misstatement of financial statements or the likelihood of issuing a going concern opinion. However, it does have an inverse and significant effect on audit fees. As investor sentiment increases, auditors become less conservative, resulting in a reduction in audit fees. The keywords for this study include investors' sentiment, misstatement, auditors' conservatism, legal risk, and going concern opinion.