ERIC Number: EJ1222353
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0883-2323
EISSN: N/A
Predictable Irrationality in Managerial Accounting: Does Knowledge Overcome Cognitive Biases of Undergraduate Students?
Clikeman, Paul M.; Stevens, Jerry L.
Journal of Education for Business, v94 n6 p351-358 2019
Managerial accounting teaches students to make rational decisions by evaluating sunk costs, incremental costs, and opportunity costs. The behavioral literature suggests that biases and heuristics overcome rational thinking. The authors explore whether learning cost concepts attenuates behavioral biases. They find a statistically significant proportion of students completing a managerial accounting course exhibit predictable irrationality in personal choices. By matching behavioral choices with final exam answers, the authors also find that learning rationality principles in accounting does not reduce predictably irrational choices in other settings. The study findings are robust across three key rational concepts. Overall, the authors cannot reject the hypothesis that behavioral choices are independent of knowledge of the underlying principle of rationality.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Accounting, Business Administration Education, Decision Making, Bias, Evaluative Thinking, Costs, Error Patterns, Knowledge Level, Behavior
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A