The Psychology of the Pandemic
When the leaders say there’s no need to panic, many people panic even more. As more and more people die due to COVID-19, we find ourselves caring less and less about it. This virus is impacting the emotional health of the rich more than the poor. Some will never stop washing their hands. Psychologists are working on the data to understand the behavioural impact of the pandemic.
What marks the return of pandemic panic buying?
Toilet paper aisles are emptying in the United States and Canada again as COVID-19 curfews and shutdowns in states from California to Toronto send pandemic-weary shoppers on a new scramble for essentials.
Walmart on Nov. 20 said it was “seeing pockets of lower than normal availability” for toilet paper and cleaning supplies in some communities as infections rage virtually unchecked across most of the United States. At least 22 states have imposed restrictions aimed at decreasing the spread of the virus — giving rise to a new round of panic buying from shoppers and purchase limits from retailers including Target and Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain. Shoppers in a half dozen cities around the United States told Reuters that disinfecting wipes were sold out at discount retailers like Walmart and Costco, as well as at grocery chains Albertsons and Vons. Walmart's are still mostly out of Lysol wipes and toilet paper in many parts of states while Oddly though, at places like Walgreens and Dollar Tree you can find what you need. People are panicking after seeing the empty shelves at bigger stores and panic buying. At a Costco in Vancouver, Washington — where new rules include temporary bans on indoor dining — out-of-stocks included toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning wipes, gloves and Spam canned meat. And the toilet paper hunt is on again in California, where the governor on Nov. 19 ordered a curfew placed on all indoor social gatherings and non-essential activities outside the home across most of the state. Charmin maker Procter & Gamble, the No.1 U.S. toilet paper seller, said it is running plants 24/7 to meet demand. Over the last several months, retailers have had to make major, costly changes to their supply chains to meet unexpected surges in demand. In a response to a tweet complaining about sold out toilet paper and paper towels, Walmart’s Sam’s Club said, “We’re working to replenish these items as fast as humanly possible.” Grocery chains say they were too slow to place limits on high-demand products early on and are trying to prevent hoarding so there isn’t another round of shortages. Retailers and manufacturers say they’re less panicked about widespread shortages now that they’ve spent months simplifying their supply chains, adding shelves and workers to fulfillment centers, and taking other measures to counter panic-buying. However, they don’t rule out the prospect of price spikes or local or temporary shortages due to transport bottlenecks.
Why do people engage in panic buying?
These are the usual reasons why people buy like there is no tomorrow:
Two ways of thinking.
At the basic level, individual decisions are best understood as the interactions between the logical brain and the emotional brain. The two systems use different operations. The logical brain calculates and considers the evidence. The emotional brain is intuitive, fast, mostly automatic, and not very accessible to conscious awareness. The logical mind tells us, “No, I don’t need to buy another roll of toilet paper.” But the emotional brain says, “Well, I better be safe than sorry.” Our emotional mind is highly attuned to visual imagery, and we’ve seen graphic images of people on social media and news media wearing masks and so forth.
Anticipatory anxiety. People are experiencing anticipatory anxiety, which is the fear and dread you experience before the event. For example, when you spend weeks dreading the result of a medical appointment or preparing for an interview. As we’ve seen in the coronavirus pandemic, the fear reaches well before the actual infection.
Fear is contagious. Just like a virus, fear tends to spread from person to person. This may occur even though there was initially no rational basis for fear. As a result, a group of people unknown to one another may spontaneously come to adopt emotional unity. With panic-buying, people feel, “If they’re doing it, I better do it, too.”
Herd mentality. As social beings, we interpret the danger of the situation based on how other people react. When the herd instinct kicks in, people suspend judgment and start doing what everyone else is doing. So, if everyone else is panic-buying foods, you would not want to be left out of the herd.
Intolerance of uncertainty. It can be defined as the inability to accept the possibility that a negative outcome may occur in the future, regardless of the probability of its occurrence. What makes coronavirus particularly frustrating for some people is the fact that there are a lot of unknowns about it — when or where it may occur, or how intense it will be. Particularly, people with preexisting anxiety disorders tend to be intolerant of uncertainty. They are constantly checking news sources and getting frightened at the images they see.
A sense of control. People want to find a way of staying in control of the situation. The nature of this virus is such that the outcome remains unchanged irrespective of any actions an individual may take. Control can be thought of as the belief that one has at one’s disposal a response that can influence the outcome. And that could contribute to frenzy shopping. Panic buying helps people feel in control of the situation.
Misinformation and rumours. The late psychologist Steuart Henderson Britt once remarked, “One person says there could be a problem. The next person says there probably is a problem. The next person says there is a problem.” We are more than ever vulnerable to the proliferation of misinformation, especially in the midst of a crisis. In the age of interconnectedness, misinformation spread by the public on social media is reaching millions of people around the world in a flash. For example, in Tokyo, false information in social media about a paper shortage due to coronavirus in China resulted in panic buying of toilet paper in March. The government assured the public that they have sufficient inventory and almost all the toilet paper is domestically produced.
There could be a shortage of toilet paper. There probably is a shortage of toilet paper. Damn, there is a shortage of toilet paper.
Whose emotional health is more impacted — the rich or the poor?
A recent poll found that high earners and the highly educated showed sharper declines in emotional well-being during the pandemic. New research forthcoming in the Journal of Applied Psychology corroborates this finding. A team of psychologists led by Connie Wanberg of the University of Minnesota found that the two defining features of socio-economic status (SES), education and income, were both associated with greater declines in psychological well-being over the course of the pandemic.
“Individuals with higher education experienced a greater increase in depressive symptoms and a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during the pandemic in comparison to those with lower education,” state the researchers. “Supplemental analysis illustrates that income had a curvilinear relationship with changes in well-being, such that individuals at the highest levels of income experienced a greater decrease in life satisfaction from before to during Covid-19 than individuals with lower levels of income.”
A possibility, according to the researchers, is that high earning individuals have a strong expectation for constant availability of resources and therefore experience greater declines in well-being during times of crisis. The researchers believe this explanation is particularly compelling given that low earning individuals have been harder hit by the pandemic on non-psychological measures such as physical health and finances.
One of the myths that are commonly heard in the rural parts of India is that those who engage in manual work don’t contract coronavirus because they sweat a lot. That is probably another way of saying that the poor, who struggle to earn their daily bread, don’t have the luxury to sit and worry about the virus.
So the question isn't how the pandemic is changing us? but how we are shaping ourselves in this pandemic? Will you let it get the best of you? or will you adapt and triumph over the circumstances. Remember, while tough times don't last but tough people always do!! Adapt, Level up and get in the game not to participate but to win. Don’t let the panic get the best of you!!
