Evaluating the Effects of Language Judgmental and Cognitive Approaches in Accounting Narratives

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Abstract

This research evaluates impact of different linguistic approaches on judgmental and cognitive behaviors of investors in Iran. In recent years various researches have evaluated the impact of language tone (positive/negative) in accounting narratives and all they have defend it. Reily [40] introduced impact of construal level (concrete/abstract) of language on investment decisions in the accounting literature. Hales et al [30] also provided evidences on how and when impact of degree of the language vividness on investors' judgments. In order to study the evolution and continuation of those researches, this study offers a new approach and show that the first- the main condition for vividness of language, is not concreteness; secondly – with increase in language vividness(regardless of construe and tone), it impacts significantly on judgmental and cognitive behavior of investors; thirdly-if the concrete information is presented as a non-vivid, it (regardless of tone) will not impact on investors' judgments; finally - increased attention drawing performance in concrete information, communicate significantly with investment decisions of individuals. This research also mentions the impact of linguistic approaches to non-numerical accounting reporting for the first step in Iran's accounting and financial literature and has innovations in terms of methodology too.

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