How Humor Reduces the Impact of Negative Feedback on Social Media

Abstract

The advent of social media has dramatically changed the way consumers communicate with others. How to communicate appropriately with mass audiences on social media has become an urgent topic in crisis communication. This article investigates the use of humor in crisis communication within a social media context. Across three studies using multisource data, the authors find that humorous responses to negative publicity can lead to more favorable consumer responses than nonhumorous responses do. This effect is moderated by the type (defensible vs. not defensible) of negative event. These findings have important implications both theoretically and managerially.