Effects of online rumors on attribution of crisis responsibility and attitude toward organization during crisis uncertainty

This study expands the situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) with rumor theory to examine the influence of online rumors on attribution of organizational crisis responsibility and attitude toward organization during a period of crisis uncertainty. Controlling for crisis issue involvement, findings from a three-group with control online experiment (N = 366) revealed that people tend to believe fact-based rumors more than rumors with subjective claims, leading to greater organizational blame and, consequently, more negative attitudes toward the organization. Findings extend the theoretical premise of rumor as postulated in SCCT with evidence that online rumors pose different levels of crisis attribution and reputational threat to organizations and suggest that organizational responses to fact-based rumors might need to be viewed beyond a victim-type crisis.