Investigating the impact of professional skepticism and mental exhaustion on the judgment of auditors working in audit firms in Iraq

Subject Areas : Independent Audit & Financial Transparency

Susan Miri Mahlol ¹ , Rahman Saedi ^{2 *} , Adel Sobhi Abdulqader ³ , Meysam َArabzadeh ⁴

1 - Department of Accounting, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
2 - Department of Accounting, Isf.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3 - Faculty member of the Iraqi Community University
4 - Department of Accounting, Ka.C., Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran

Received: 2025-04-27 Accepted : 2025-07-19 Published : 2025-07-28

Keywords: Auditors' judgment, mental exhaustion, professional skepticism,

Abstract :

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of professional skepticism and mental exhaustion on the judgment of auditors working in audit firms in Iraq.

Methodology: The present study is applied in terms of purpose, cross-sectional in terms of time, quantitative in terms of the nature of the data, and descriptive-survey research in terms of how to obtain data. The statistical population of the study includes managers and senior employees of auditing firms in Iraq who have an auditing license. The validity of the questionnaire was approved by the professors, and the reliability of the questionnaires was reported to be acceptable using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Descriptive statistics and the structural equation method were used to analyze the data.

Findings: The results showed that professional skepticism has a significant effect on the judgment of auditors working in firms in Iraq. Also, the mental exhaustion has a significant effect on the judgment of auditors working in firms in Iraq.

Originality: Audit skepticism causes more focus on financial documents and corrects wrong judgments from various aspects. On the other hand, if the auditor has mental exhaustion for various reasons, he cannot focus on judgment as intended.

References:

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