The relevance of professional skepticism to finance professionals’ Socially Responsible Investing decisions

This letter contributes to the literature on socially responsible investing (SRI) decisions by highlighting the relevance of professional skepticism, which is a core and fundamental concept in auditing, to finance professionals. Specifically, in the presence of richer and complex sources of information, from formal and informal sources, professional skepticism helps finance professionals’ in evaluating the relevance and reliability of information particularly with reference to social, environmental and ethical issues in investment decisions. We also suggest that professional skepticism helps in mitigating behavioral biases.