The Role of Narcissistic Hypocrisy in the Development of Accounting Estimates

Abstract

In an experiment including experienced managers, we investigate how supervisor and subordinate narcissism influence a supervisor’s review of a subordinate’s accounting estimate. While narcissistic supervisors express greater liking for narcissistic subordinates (narcissistic tolerance), they nonetheless reject and revise the accounting estimates of narcissistic subordinates to a greater extent than they reject estimates of non-narcissistic subordinates (narcissistic hypocrisy), even when doing so inhibits the supervisor’s ability to reach a profit target. Our findings contribute to extant research in accounting and psychology. We demonstrate that narcissistic hypocrisy extends beyond the evaluation of others, and alters narcissists’ willingness to rely on other narcissists in a meaningful financial reporting decision. We also find that narcissistic hypocrisy is robust across age, gender and supervisory experience.

Keywords: narcissism, narcissistic tolerance, narcissistic hypocrisy, accounting estimates