Opinion shopping for tax advice: The effects of client narcissism, social bonds, and message framing

Contentious interactions can arise between a tax professional and client upon disagreement over a tax position. These interpersonal exchanges can lead to “opinion shopping” and represent a threat to voluntary tax compliance and the public interest. Opinion shopping is likely to increase in an era of rising narcissism because antagonistic narcissists are known to react aggressively to rejection of their views. To better understand drivers of opinion shopping, we conduct a quasi-experiment with 222 U.S taxpayers. We find clients with higher (lower) levels of antagonistic narcissism are more (less) likely to opinion shop and switch to another tax preparer. We also examine the efficacy of two theory-motivated moderators of client antagonistic narcissism: [1] tax professional – client social bonds and [2] persuasive messaging by the advisor. By doing so, we respond to calls to explore moderating influences on the undesirable effects of antagonistic narcissism while also providing novel insight into factors influencing taxpayer clients’ decision-making following interpersonal exchanges with a tax advisor. We find that while close social bonds and sanction warnings reduce opinion shopping among participants lower in antagonistic narcissism, they fail to do so among participants higher in antagonistic narcissism. Theory provides no basis for predicting a three-way interaction, and we find none. Contributions to the research literature, as well as implications for tax practice and policy internationally, are also discussed.