Punish or Forgive? Exploring the Mediating Role of CEO Attitudes on the Interaction of Emotional Crisis Communication and Crisis Type

James Ndone, Qi Zheng, Rongting Niu (Ph.D. student), Yan Jin and Margaret Duffy. "Punish or Forgive? Exploring the Mediating Role of CEO Attitudes on the Interaction of Emotional Crisis Communication and Crisis Type," paper to be presented in Public Relations Division session, AEJMC Annual Conference, August 7-10, 2025, San Francisco, CA.

Abstract: This study explores how crisis type (product-harm vs. moral-harm) and CEO’s emotional expression (anger vs. shame) in organizational crisis response affect publics’ intentions of organizational punishment and forgiveness after a crisis. Additionally, it examines the mediating roles of perceived CEO attitudes (arrogance and sincerity) in these relationships. Using a 2 (crisis type: product-harm vs. moral-harm) × 2 (CEO emotional expression: anger vs. shame) between-subjects design (N = 406, recruited via CloudResearch), the results show that product-harm crises significantly triggered higher punishment and lower forgiveness intentions compared to moral-harm crises. However, contrary to expectations, the CEO’s emotional expression did not directly influence the intended punishment or forgiveness. Notably, significant interaction effects emerged when anger was expressed by the CEO. In product-harm crises, anger led to higher punishment and lower forgiveness intentions than in moral-harm crises. Furthermore, CEO attitudes (i.e., arrogance and sincerity) significantly mediated these effects on intended behaviors among participants. CEO arrogance increased punishment and decreased forgiveness, particularly when anger was expressed, while CEO sincerity mitigated punishment and enhanced forgiveness. Both theoretical and practical implications of the current study are discussed.