An International Meeting of the American Accounting Association American Accounting Association 2006 Annual Meeting August 6–9, 2006 Washington, D.C.

David T. Dearman
University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

James E. Beard
University of Arkansas - Fort Smith

Abstract: Numerous accounting research studies employ an experimental research method requiring student subjects to make representations about an individual characteristic (e.g., ability, cost) that provides a basis for payment of economic rewards. Expectedly, many subjects intentionally misrepresent that characteristic so as to receive greater rewards. Typically, these studies are considered to be exempt from review by the sponsoring university’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) and subjects are not debriefed about their behavior. This paper questions the ethics of inducing strategic misrepresentation and rewarding fraudulent behavior. A theoretical framework of cognitive ethical development suggests that such research methods may be harmful to student subjects and principles of operant conditioning suggest that the rewards reinforce such fraudulent behavior. It is argued that research studies employing this method should not be exempt from IRB review and should include debriefing of subjects.

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