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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.

BackgroundDuring the COVID-19 pandemic, many humorous videos on how to practice social distancing appeared on social media. However, the effect of using humor as a crisis communication strategy to persuade people to conform to social distancing rules is not known.ObjectiveDrawing on the literature on humorous message framing and crisis communication, this research explores the effectiveness of a humorous message in communicating social distancing rules in two crisis severity phases (low vs. high severity) and also evaluates how humor affects individuals’ online and offline engagement intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsA 2 (message framing: humorous vs. non-humorous) x 2 (crisis severity phase: low vs. high) between-subjects design experiment was conducted to test the research questions during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in China from January 30 to February 2, 2020.ResultsThe results showed that the severity of the phase of a health crisis can significantly affect stakeholders’ online and offline responses toward the disease. More specifically, in a low severity phase, humor led to increased source likability for the message, and more online and offline engagement intentions. However, no differences between a humorous and non-humorous message in perceived risk were observed. Whereas, in a high severity crisis phase, humor reduced individuals’ offline engagement intentions and a decrease in perceived risk, no significant difference was found between a humorous and non-humorous message on source likeability.ConclusionHumor can motivate both more online engagement and offline protective action intention when the crisis severity phase is low, while when crisis severity soars, a non-humorous message should be more desirable. More specifically, using humor in communicating information about an infectious disease can enhance the spokesperson’s likeability in a low severity phase, and also helps to spread health information to a larger audience. While, the negative side of using humor in communicating an infectious disease appears in severe crisis phases, as it then decreased the public’s perception of risk, and triggers less protective actions. Going beyond previous research, this study recognized that crisis severity changes in different phases of the spread of infectious disease, thereby providing actionable strategy selections for crisis practitioners in a dynamic communication environment.

Three groups of GCr15 steel were heat-treated respectively by conventional spheroidizing annealing, circulation spheroidizing annealing, 1050°C for 30min oil cooling quenching + 700°C tempering. The final heat treatment of these GCr15 steel was 840°C oil cooling quenching + 150°C tempering. The microstructure of the heat-treated GCr15 were observed and the mechanism of three spheroidizing treatment were discussed in this paper. The results showed that: There is obvious difference among the three groups carbide of GCr15 for the mechanism of three spheroidizing treatments is different. The GCr15 has 1050°C for 30min oil cooling quenching + 700°C tempering showed the best result of carbide spheroidizing. The microstructure of GCr15 after 840°C oil cooling quenching + 150 °C tempering was tempered martensite and carbide which is fine, round and widely distributed.