Auditor Expertise, Jurors’ Social Identities and Evaluations of Auditor Negligence

Abstract

This paper employs Social Identity Theory to investigate the impact of auditor expertise and jurors’ identification with auditors on jurors’ perceptions of auditor negligence. Consistent with expectations, jurors who identified more strongly with auditors (strong identifiers) levied more lenient negligence judgments to auditors than weak identifiers. These findings suggest that lay jurors demonstrate the ability to empathize with auditors. However, the significant interaction between jurors’ social identities and the firm’s level of expertise suggests that the effects of jurors’ identities on negligence verdicts may be constrained by firm characteristics.