Have any studies been conducted on whether password strength indicators break user journey's. Here is a hypothetical scenario:
As a customer of an eCommerce website, I am ready to make a purchase and begin the registration process in order to complete my order. I am faced with a password strength indicator whilst creating my user profile and discover my usual password is weak. I think to myself ‘blimey, I use this password for my bank and my online pension admin too. I best go and change them as a priority’. I then proceed to leave the eCommerce website and handle the change of passwords on these top priority accounts.
My question therefore relates to whether password strength indicators can be a distraction to the user journey, causing users to panic and correct passwords elsewhere.