We're Not Better, We're Just Different: How Brand‐Customer Disparagement Humor Helps to Build Brand Communities
研究了品牌在社交媒体上使用贬损幽默（取笑某个目标）如何影响消费者对品牌社群的归属感，发现对高度认同社群的成员能增强情感联系，但对低认同者则适得其反。
ABSTRACT Brand disparagement humor, defined as a brand's use of humor to belittle a target, has emerged as a largely successful yet risky social media strategy. While prior research highlights its effectiveness under specific conditions, such as alignment with brand personality or onlooker motivations, little is known about its potential to strengthen brand communities. Drawing on Benign Violation Theory and Social Identity Theory, we contend that brand disparagement humor fosters attachment by disparaging perceived outgroups when onlookers strongly identify with the brand community. Across one field study and four online experiments, we demonstrate a clear crossover effect: aggressive brand disparagement reduces emotional attachment among non‐identifiers, but increases attachment among highly identified community members by amplifying perceptions of group distinctiveness. This study contributes to the literature on brand disparagement humor by challenging the prevailing view that it is merely a high‐risk strategy, instead revealing its potential as a mechanism for building consumer‐brand relationships through social identity processes.