Exploring online deviant behaviour
A study on the impact of internet anonymity on tourists’ exaggerated comments
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21698930 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xinhua Guan (Guangdong University of Finance and Economics), Jinhong Gong (0000-0002-3963-3177, South China Agricultural University), Yingchen Zheng (Guangdong University of Finance and Economics), Tzung‐cheng Huan (0000-0002-3027-0269, National Chiayi University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 7 |
| Pages | 1155-1171 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Current Issues in Tourism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1368-3500 • E-ISSN: 1747-7603 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13683500.2024.2353329 |
| OpenAlex | W4397042190 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 45 |
The research objectives of this paper are to analyze the role of internet anonymity in customers’ publication of exaggerated online reviews, explore the potential processes of moral disengagement, and study possible moderating and mediating factors. To achieve these objectives, this study conducts a questionnaire survey among 530 internet users and perform regression analysis to test the research model. This test results reveal that internet anonymity has a positive impact on exaggerated online reviews through two moral disengagement mechanisms: advantageous comparison and distorting consequences. Moral identity not only negatively moderates the effect of internet anonymity on advantageous comparison and distorting consequences but also negatively moderates the mediating role of advantageous comparison and distorting consequences between internet anonymity and exaggerated online reviews. This research enriches the findings in the field of fake reviews and value co-destruction in the tourism sector and offers insights for relevant regulatory agencies to improve the online environment
Advertising · Anonymity · Business · Computer security · Internet privacy · Political science · Sociology · The Internet · Tourism · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Consumer Behavior in Brand Consumption and Identification · Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology
Tourists’ Pro-environmental Behaviors
Relaxing moral reasoning to win
Why Employees Do Bad Things
Unable to resist temptation
Fake news, social media and marketing
Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables and Measurement Error
Selective Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral Agency
Deviance and the Internet
Evaluation nudge
Analysis of the perceived value of online tourism reviews
Complaining practices on social media in tourism
Does seeing deviant other-tourist behavior matter? The moderating role of travel companions
Moral disengagement of hotel guest negative WOM
The Labeling Game
A focus theory of normative conduct
The self-importance of moral identity
Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency
Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities
| Citations per year | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |