A discussion of irrational stockpiling behaviour during crisis

Abstract

One of the ubiquitous human behaviours observed in natural disasters and humanitarian crisis is irrational stockpiling (also known as hoarding or panic buying). Limited, distorted and exaggerated information during crisis disturbs people’s judgement and results in aberrant actions which can be explained with economics and psychology theories. The objective of this paper is to examine the perplexing stockpiling phenomena during disasters like COVID-19 pandemic and discuss its immediate and long-term impact on economy, society and local communities.

Responsible Factors of Panic Buying: An Observation From Online Media Reports

“…Perceived scarcity has been mentioned repeatedly by different groups of authors as an important responsible factor for PB ( 2 , 6 , 7 ). However, perception of threat and/or perception of risk have also been mentioned as a factor that has not been found in the current study ( 3 , 7 ).…”

“…The study revealed that PB has been reported in 93 countries. Previous studies reported the distribution of the countries; however, none of the studies mentioned such wide distributions ( 1 , 2 , 4 , 5 ).…”

“…Singh and Rakshit mentioned PB as herd behavior ( 8 ) and Tsao et al mentioned supply chain disruption ( 9 ). Again, Chen et al ( 2 ) described that disturbed judgments resulting from improper information during a crisis are responsible for PB where authors tried to explain it with economics and psychology theories. The endowment effect and commodity and prospect theories have been proposed to explain PB based on economics ( 2 ).…”

“…Again, Chen et al ( 2 ) described that disturbed judgments resulting from improper information during a crisis are responsible for PB where authors tried to explain it with economics and psychology theories. The endowment effect and commodity and prospect theories have been proposed to explain PB based on economics ( 2 ). Additionally, the authors hypothesized three mental processes mentioning autonomy, relatedness, and competence as attributing factors for PB ( 2 ).…”

“…The endowment effect and commodity and prospect theories have been proposed to explain PB based on economics ( 2 ). Additionally, the authors hypothesized three mental processes mentioning autonomy, relatedness, and competence as attributing factors for PB ( 2 ).…”