Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness and the Relationship with Individual Taxpayer Compliance Behavior

Abstract

Within the Big Five personality framework, past research has found that neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness tend to display a relationship with ethical behavior (Sacket & Wanek, 1996; Kolz, 1999; Kalshoven, Den Hartog, & DeHoogh, 2011). Although past research has explored the relationship between white-collar crime and personality (Blickle, Schlegel, Fassbender, & Klein, 2006; Turner, 2014), this study seeks to more narrowly look at the influence that personality (specifically, neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscitiousness) has on taxpayer compliance. As hypothesized, results provide support that taxpayer compliance behavior decreases when higher level of neuroticism and conscientiousness are present.