Digital engagement and identity online: Measuring deviance propensity through projective vignette methodology

Social desirability bias undermines self-report measures of online misconduct. This study used a projective vignette methodology to indirectly assess deviance propensity among 202 U.S. adults. Participants evaluated three scenarios, technical exploitation, anonymous misinformation, and professional identity fraud, providing moral judgments, peer prevalence estimates, and personal behavioral intentions. Higher peer estimates significantly predicted personal willingness to deviate across all scenarios, validating the indirect approach. The strongest predictor of deviance was the belief that one’s online and offline identities are psychologically separate. Younger adults reported substantially higher deviance propensity. Findings support Suler’s (2004) dissociative anonymity construct.