Humour as a double-edged sword in response to crises versus rumours: The effectiveness of humorously framed crisis response messages on social media

摘要

Two single-factorial experiments were used to examine the double-edged sword effect of humorously framed crisis response messages on an organization's postcrisis reputation. While experiment 1 was conducted in a crisis situation, experiment 2 examined its effectiveness in the case of a rumourthat is a crisis situation that is not yet confirmed (and thus, it remains uncertain that the events took place). The results indicate that in a crisis situation, humour decreased the perceived sincerity of the organizational response, resulting in higher perceived organizational responsibility for the crisis and hence diminished organizational reputation. However, in the case of a rumour, humour created a more positive organizational reputation through decreased perceived crisis severity, leading to lower perceived organizational responsibility.