The ethical reasoning abilities of accounting students: Comparison between the United States and Taiwan

Western and Eastern Ethics theories share similarities and differences in points of view, yet pursuant to ethical relativism neither is absolutely "wrong" or "right".;Kohlberg (1976) stated that Moral Judgment is universal. However, several research findings showed that cultural differences might affect moral judgment.;This study uses Rest's DIT to compare accounting students to determine whether there is a difference in ethical reasoning between Taiwan and the U.S.;This research finds that Taiwan accounting students possess higher levels of ethical reasoning than students in the U.S. The means of the DIT P and N2 scores for females are higher than males by 20% and 18.5% respectively. Female accounting students thus have significant higher levels of ethical reasoning.;The findings show that there are no significant differences on age and level of ethical reasoning, education levels and level of ethical reasoning, and ethics courses and the level of ethical reasoning.