Customers have been stockpiling goods like hand sanitizer, bottled water, canned goods, paper towels and toilet paper.
In some ways, the trend of panic buying is a way for people to take back control in uncertain times.
Many psychologists have suggested that panic buying can be understood as playing to our three fundamental psychology needs in (1) autonomy—as in the need for control; (2) relatedness—better defined as “we shopping,” rather than “me shopping,” and (3) competence—whereby a level of accomplishment is achieved and making a purchase gives people a sense that they are “smart shoppers.”
Often in times of uncertainty, people can enter a “panic zone” that makes them irrational and—in rare cases—borderline neurotic.
Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos, an expert in consumer and behavioral science at the University College London, has for the past few months witnessed this phenomenon and offered an unexpected assessment:
“Because toilet paper has a longer shelf-life than many food items,” he said.
