ABSTRACT
This research aims to examine whether accountability and ethics can reduce auditees’ likeability bias. In fact, many empirical studies have shown that auditees’ likeability affects judgment. A recent study states that recency bias influences auditors’ judgments on audit reports. An auditor tends to process information that has an affective impact on the quality of decisions. The hypothesis was examined empirically using a factorial experimental design of 2 × 2 × 2 with two levels of likeability (high or low), two levels of ethics (high or low), and two levels of accountability process (high or low). The experimental subjects in this study are graduate students who have taken an auditing course. The results of this research show that auditees’ likeability negatively affects the objectivity of an audit decision. In addition, this study also reveals that accountability can mitigate the bias resulting from auditees’ likeability. Ethics also have an effect on bias due to an auditees’ likeability, so they will increase the objectiveness of a decision.
