The relationship between accounting students' love of money and their ethical perception

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate how accounting students view cheating actions inside and outside the classroom. It relates the love of money, a psychological variable, to the ethical perceptions of accounting students by examining their cheating perceptions. Design/methodology/approach - A survey is developed based on cheating actions and the love of money scales and administered to 213 undergraduate and graduate accounting students in two universities in the western US students' perceptions of cheating are measured. Students are classified according to their love of money as money‐worshippers, money‐repellants, or careless money‐admirers. Findings - Accounting students view cheating actions outside the classroom as more unethical than cheating actions inside the classroom. The love of money is significantly related to perceptions of cheating. Money worshippers view cheating actions as more ethical followed by money‐admirers and money‐repellants who view such actions as more unethical. Research limitations/implications - The surveyed students may not be representative of all students in the USA. In addition, perceptions of cheating may not determine cheating behavior. Practical implications - Instructors should continue to emphasize the importance of ethical behavior. Future employers should consider the love of money as an important psychological variable related to ethical perception in their hiring decisions. Originality/value - Previous research founds that classroom cheating can be used to predict future workplace cheating among accounting employees. The study is the first to examine the relationship between the love of money and cheating among accounting students.