Psychopathy and accounting students' attitudes towards unethical professional practices

Psychopathy is a personality trait characterized by deficits of conscience and empathy, leading to callous attitudes and manipulative behavior, and is one of the “Dark Triad” of personality variables, along with Machiavellianism and narcissism. It has gained some attention in accounting literature, and clearly has serious implications for fraud and unethical behavior by accountants and auditors-arguably more so than other dark personality traits. Using a national sample of accounting students, this study documents the levels of psychopathy, the correlations with certain attitudes about unethical professional practices, and the potential trend across academic class level. Comparisons are made to previous samples of college students, accounting faculty, prisoners, and the general population. The responses of individuals high on the scale are described to offer insight into the attitudes and beliefs of those individuals. Implications for accounting education and opportunities for further research are discussed.