The Janus head of a Crisis Message: Two Distinct Faces Altering Perceptions and Behaviour

In times of high-impact organizational crises, an organization in crisis may choose to spread its crisis message on forehand. This reduces negative impacts on the organizational credibility. Social media can be a helpful tool for an organization to spread the crisis message. In addition, peer reactions through social media during a risk situation help to convince citizens whether to engage in self-protective behaviour or not. This research strived to determine the effects of peer feedback and crisis timing strategy on (1) self-protective behaviour, (2) secondary crisis reactions, (3) risk perception and (4) organizational credibility among consumers. In this study, a 2 (crisis timing strategy: stealing thunder vs. thunder) x 2 (peer feedback: supporting vs. opposing) between subjects experimental design was used (N = 184). Results showed that organizational credibility mediates the interplay of crisis timing strategy and peer feedback on both self-protective behaviour and secondary crisis reactions. Finally, implications for organizational crisis communication and future research are discussed.