Media and Fraud - Accounting and Accountability

Abstract

Media can play a huge role in the decisions of individuals. However, how media coverage impacts individuals’ decisions in an accounting setting has not been addressed in the literature. My research question is: does media coverage directly influence an individual’s likelihood to commit fraud? In my study, “committing fraud” is defined as making an overly aggressive accounting choice. This study was conducted using the MBA and MSA students. After administering the survey face-to-face, I gathered 96 responses to be used for analysis. findings show that individuals are more likely to report aggressively in the control condition, where their company has a neutral portrayal in the media in comparison to a company that has either a strong positive or strong negative portrayal in the media. My study finds that positive and negative media coverage made people more likely to report less revenue, which in my scenario, represents a less aggressive accounting choice. This demonstrates the significance of media on an individual’s actions, which hasn’t been tested previously in the accounting field.