Background: The professional identity and gender of the auditors are among the factors that can affect and change the ethical judgment of external auditors. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of professional identity on ethical judgment and to investigate the mediating role of gender in this influence.
Method: The method of this research is descriptive-survey of correlation type. The statistical population is auditors working in IACPA member accounting firms and the statistical sample is 437 members of the population who were selected by random sampling method. Research data were collected using a questionnaire and research hypotheses were tested using multivariate regression.
Results: The results of research hypotheses showed that professional identity has a positive and significant effect on auditors' ethical judgment and the gender variable moderates this relationship.
Conclusion: The results indicate that a strong professional identity leads to more ethical judgments because it adapts the attitudes and behaviors of auditors to their professional roles. In addition, since the development of professional and personal identities is different for men than for women, this causes differences in their moral judgments.