How complicit are entry-level accountants in carrying out an unethical request from their superiors? This was the question of interest in a study published in the journal Behavioral Research in Accounting (July 2015). A sample of 86 accounting graduate students participated in the study. After asking the subjects to perform what is clearly an unethical task (e.g., to bribe a customer), the researchers measured each subject's intention to comply with the unethical request score. Scores ranged from -1.5 (intention to resist the unethical request) to 2.5 (intention to comply with the unethical request). Summary statistics on the 86 scores follow: x̅ = 2.42, s = 2.84.

a. Estimate m, the mean intention to comply score for the population of all entry-level accountants, using a 90% confidence interval.

b. Give a practical interpretation of the interval, part a.

c. Refer to part a. What proportion of all similarly constructed confidence intervals (in repeated sampling) will contain the true value of μ?

d. Compute the interval, x̅ ± 2s. How does the interpretation of this interval differ from that of the confidence interval, part a?