Personality Type and Professional Skepticism: Are auditors really independent?

: The importance of Professional Skepticism is such that is being called as the heart of auditing and the auditors must perform the auditing process using a Professional Skepticism attitude. As the auditors’ personality can affect their Professional Skepticism, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of personality types on auditor’s professional skepticism. Research data was collected using Neo Big 5 personality trait and Hurtt questionnaires during 2020. The statistical population is the auditor working in the Auditing Organization and accounting firms listed in the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants. The sample includes 96 auditors who have been selected by using the simple random sampling method. The results show that the personality type affects the auditor professional skepticism and the auditors with a higher (lower) level of extraversion, a higher (lower) level of stability, a lower (higher) level of agreeableness, and a higher (lower) level of conscientiousness, have a higher (lower) level of professional skepticism. In other words, auditors’ independence is affected by their personality type. The results can help the audit firms to recruit new employees and also to evaluate and maintain the current employees.