Going to the stores during this difficult time of the coronavirus, I am always so curious to see why the toilet paper ailes are always so empty. I never understood the connection between a large pandemic and toilet paper and why people feel the need to stack up on such a random essential item that isn't even having a supply issue. Looking into this I realized that a lot of this has to do with Psychology.
As the virus was becoming more and more serious, Americans began to worry about supply shortages and lack of essential items. This fear increased through social media and people began hoarding this item. People were beginning to feel insecure about not having their essentials and hoarding seems to be the cure to this insecurity. Since people are not used to having such little control about what is happening in their lives, having control on having enough essentials soothes their fears. There is something called the zero risk bias that is basically summarized to the phrase, “better safe than sorry”. People do silly things to eliminate superficial risks. Another reason for hoarding could be related to our biological background. Animals are commonly known to hoard essentials as a tactic for survival.
Although toilet paper isn't having a major supply issue, these items take more space on a shelf so it gets empty faster than any other item. Bigger items that leave visible gaps, provides us with the illusion that there is a shortage. We are social animals, so whenever we see people doing so on the news or on social media, we tend to copy the same behavior.
In order to keep humanity sane, we need to learn to ration essential items as a community. We need to be logical about things and purely purchase only what you need at the moment. The stores will continue to be open and there needs to be enough items for everyone. If people purely purchase only what they need, shortage is unlikely.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/this-is-why-everyone-is-hoarding-toilet-paper/https://www.socialsciencespace.com/2020/03/why-are-people-hoarding-toilet-paper/
On the whole, I agree with your points that behavior and perception plays a large role in consumer decisions and that humans ought to become better at cooperating in times of crisis.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't think that continuing toilet paper shortages are due to hoarding. Hoarding has largely stopped, though shortages of paper products continue due to the challenges in scaling logistics and production to meet legitimately rising demand. Quarantine has us using more small Charmin rolls (consumer brands) and less one-ply barrels (industrial suppliers). The same is true for paper towels and other paper products.
Source: my post https://microeconomicsap2nd2020.blogspot.com/2020/04/toilet-paper-information-flow-and.html