COVID-19: The Psychology of Panic-Buying
Unless you have been living under a rock, I’m sure you have seen all the news about panic buying due to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Our social media timelines have been bombarded with images of empty supermarket shelves and people fighting over toilet paper.
There is some rationality to panic buying, with an emphasis on social distancing, wanting to stock up on non-perishable foods and medicines makes sense for long periods of potential lockdown and to treat those who may experience symptoms. But the stockpiling of toilet paper is particularly curious. As COVID-19 is not known to cause gastrointestinal symptoms – i.e. you will not shit yourself if you get this virus.
As shocking as it has been to see so many empty shelves at my local Asda and around the world, I was interested in trying to understand the behavior that drives panic buying.
Taking Back Control
We as humans innately desire control over our environments and events in our lives (Chen, Lee, and Yap 2017). Mixed messages are coming from governments, health authorities, and social and mainstream media on the spread of COVID-19, and there is no indication when this pandemic will end. The lack of information and misinformation is causing a loss of sense of control.
This perceived lack of control makes us feel anxious, causing us to resort to strategies to restore personal control. Interestingly, these strategies performed do not necessarily need to be directed toward what is causing the sense of lost control (Landau, Kay, and Whitson 2015). Even the simple act of problem-solving, solving any problem at all, can enhance our sense of control (Chen, Lee, and Yap 2017).
Utilitarian products, which are essential and practical goods such as cleaning products and toilet paper tend to be associated with problem-solving; because of this, the purchasing of utilitarian products gives us feelings of accomplishment (Chen, Lee, and Yap 2017).
With no certainties or clear direction from officials, people want to feel like they are taking action and doing something to protect themselves and their families; stocking up on essentials provides people with a sense of safety and control.
Panic Buying is Contagious
Humans are social creatures if many people in our tribe are performing a certain behavior, we take it as “social proof” that this behavior is worth imitating. Social proof is even more prominent in situations where information is limited (Fenko, Keizer, and Pryin 2017), for example, have you ever assumed that a club or restaurant is exclusive or really good when you see a long queue of people waiting to enter?
In the case of panic buying, because of the onslaught of images and news of people stockpiling, we assume others around us possess more information about the current situation and this drives more people into panic buying.
Seeing a nearly empty shelf gives us the urge to purchase that item. We are psychologically sensitive to scarcity; we place a high value on things that are scarce or rare (Fenko, Keizer, and Pryin 2017). As a result, what started as perceived scarcity becomes real scarcity as everyone rushes out to buy certain goods like pasta and toilet paper while they still can.
The regret of not buying an item is more intense than the regret of buying an item in situations of limited purchasing opportunity, this drives people into buying with greater determination than they would have otherwise (Abendroth and Diehl 2006). With the threat of lockdown looming and many countries already in lockdown, people don’t want to regret not stocking up.
This pandemic is creating a climate of stress and high anxiety. These feelings can cause mental fatigue and overload, which inhabits our usual rational thought processes (Mullette-Gillman, Leong, and Kurnianigsih 2015). This increases the likelihood of using external factors when making decisions, causing us to be more likely to conform to the actions of others and submit to innate, automatic thought processes that use less effort.
The Tragedy of the Commons
The tragedy of the commons is a sociological concept that may also help to explain why people are clearing supermarket shelves and hoarding items as simple as toilet paper. This concept applies in a shared resource system, where individuals act independently according to their self-interest and behave contrary to the common good of all users of that system, causing the depletion of a shared resource (Hardin 1968).
In the case of stockpiling, the selfish action of individuals loading their carts with as much as they can carry drains the shared resource. With demand outstripping supply, more and more people stockpile, overconsuming the resource. This results in complete devastation of the shared system, in this case, the supermarkets, and ultimately everyone suffers, as stocks remain perpetually low.
Simply put, the tragedy of the commons is a situation when individuals neglect the well-being of others in society in the pursuit of personal gain, and as a result, the shared resource becomes unavailable to everyone.
Be Considerate
There are real consequences to panic buying, clearing the supermarket shelves of essentials can leave many completely without. Stocking up on extra food is a good idea to prepare for potentially long periods of quarantine - but be sensible. You do not need to fill your trolley with eight 5kg bags of rice nor do you need six 24-packs of toilet paper.
Be considerate, if we all take what we need, there will be enough resources to go around.
References
Abendroth, Lisa J., and Diehl, Kristen. (2006), Now or Never: Effects of Limited Purchase Opportunities on Patterns of Regret over Time. Journal of Consumer Research, 33(3), 342-351. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/33/3/342/1891923
Chen, CY., Lee, L., and Yap, AJ. (2017), Control Deprivation Motivation Acquisition of Utilitarian Products. Journal of Consumer Research, 43 (6), 1031-1047. Available from: https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article-abstract/43/6/1031/2687775
Fenko, A., Keizer, T., and Pryin, A. (2017), Do Social Proof and Scarcity Work in The Online Context? 16th International Conference on Research in Advertising (ICORIA 2017). Available from: https://ris.utwente.nl/ws/files/13753628/ICORIA_2017_paper_40.pdf
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243-1248. Available from: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243
Landau, MJ., Aaron, KC., and Jennifer, WA. (2015), Compensatory Control and the Appeal of a Structured World. Psychological Bulletin, 141 (3), 694–722. Available from: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-06511-001
Mullette-Gillman, OA., Leong, RLF., Kurnianingsih, YA., (2015), Cognitive Fatigue Destabilises Economic Decision-Making Preferences and Strategies. PLoS one, 1#0(7), e0132022-e0132022. Available from: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132022
Further reading
For up-to-date health information on coronavirus (COVID-19), please visit the NHS website: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Taylor, S. (2019). The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak of Infectious Disease. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (I haven’t read this book, but it is on my wish list!)
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. (2020). The Coronavirus Explained & What You Should Do. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtN-goy9VOY (A really informative video, and explains the coronavirus in an easy-to-understand way)
