Re-Validation of Professional Skepticism Traits

Emphasis on auditor skepticism attitude has attracted audit regulators in line with cases of fraud increasing currently. However, the explanation of skepticism traits among auditors is still lacking. The validity of the Hurtt skepticism scale in the context of the different audit work requirement requires further examination. A factor analysis is conducted to validate the suitability of the instrument based on Malaysian data. The result found that five skepticism traits are relevant except for suspension of judgment. The suspension of judgment trait may be irrelevant since respondents are required to allocate more time to make audit decisions and may delay audit work. This indicates that the respondents may not likely to possess such a trait because they are burdened with numerous audit tasks that must be completed by a deadline. The results suggest that variances may exist across different countries due to differences in environment.