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

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 rumour—that 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.