BEHAVIORAL ACCOUNTING AND ITS COGNITIVE EFFECTS ON DECISION MAKING: A SAMPLE WITH OPERATORS ACCOUNTING

Abstract

The goal of this study is to investigate the cognitive effects targeted to operators of Accounting: Heuristics of representativeness, Overconfidence, Availability Effect and Heuristics of Relativity, based on accounting. Regarding the methodological procedures, a descriptive research, with data collection was carried out, having inductive approach. A questionnaire consisting of six questions was applied in two steps: through e-mail to the auditors of the National Register of Independent Auditors (CNAI) and the Institute of Independent Auditors of Brazil (IBRACON) (137 auditors) and Accountants throughout Brazil (722 accountants); and on the spot to the Internal Auditors of Public Accounts of the State of Paraíba (50 accountants). The data of this study were handled with the help of Microsoft Office Excel ® and SPSS software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). The tests used were: Pearson’s Chi-square test for independence, Fisher’s Exact Test and Phi and Cramer's V Test, all at the significance level of 5%. The results showed that the accounting operators, depending on the scenario, are influenced by the cognitive effects of overconfidence, heuristic relativity (anchoring effect) and probabilistic judgments.