Anxiety and Panic Buying Behaviour during COVID-19 Pandemic—A Qualitative Analysis of Toilet Paper Hoarding Contents on Twitter

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had increased population-level anxiety and had elicited panic buying behaviour across the world. The over-hoarding of toilet paper has received a lot of negative public attention. In this work, we used Twitter data to qualitatively analyse tweets related to panic buying of toilet paper during the crisis. Methods: A total of 255,171 tweets were collected. Of these 4081 met our inclusion criteria and 100 tweets were randomly selected to develop a coding scheme in the initial phase. Random samples of tweets in folds of 100 were then qualitatively analysed in the focused coding phase until saturation was met at 500 tweets analysed. Results: Five key themes emerged: (1) humour or sarcasm, (2) marketing or profiteering, (3) opinion and emotions, (4) personal experience, and (5) support or information. About half of the tweets carried negative sentiments, expressing anger or frustration towards the deficiency of toilet paper and the frantic situation of toilet paper hoarding, which were among the most influential tweets. Discussion: Panic buying of toilet paper was seen during the 2020 pandemic period with a mass amount of related content spread across social media. The spontaneous contagion of fear and panic through social media could fuel psychological reactions in midst of crises. The high level of negative social media posts regarding the toilet paper crisis acts as an emotional trigger of public anxiety and panic. Conclusions: Social media data can provide rapid infodemiology of public mental health. In a pandemic or crisis situation, real-time data could be monitored and content-analysed for authorities to promptly address public concerns.

Purchasing under threat: Changes in shopping patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Another study, using structural equation models, revealed that cyberchondria—that is, excessive information gathering about COVID-19 combined with feelings of frustration and anxiety—is positively associated with the intention to make unusual purchases [ 38 ]. A qualitative study on contents on twitter about toilet paper hoarding found out that nearly half of the analyzed tweets expressed negative feelings toward panic buying [ 39 ]. The authors hypothesize that this might lead to emotional distress, depression and anxiety-driven panic buying (see also [ 40 ]).…”

Panic Buying and Consumption Displacement during COVID-19: Evidence from New Zealand

“…The burgeoning evidence on panic buying globally due to COVID-19 shows that stockpiling behavior of non-perishable food and bathroom products was not uncommon, with panic buying of toilet paper receiving considerable media publicity (Garbe et al 2020;Kirk and Rifkin 2020;Loxton et al 2020;Yoshizaki et al 2020;Leung et al 2021;Taylor 2021). Panic buying is part of the wider process of consumption displacement that occurs during disasters and pandemics.…”

“…Hoarding or stockpiling is the act of collecting and safeguarding a large quantity of possessions for future use (Chu 2018). Consumer hoarding during COVID-19 were likely to be primarily affected by government public health interventions that served to constrain consumers' normal consumption behaviors and practices (Hall et al 2020), e.g., in terms of where, when and how to purchase; supply chain disruptions (Kirk and Rifkin 2020;and social media (Zhao and Zhou 2020;Leung et al 2021), and sensationalist media reporting (Arafat et al 2020b). This was manifested by product scarcity on shelves, most recognizably with respect to a seeming global concern with the availability of toilet paper (Garbe et al 2020;Loxton et al 2020;Yoshizaki et al 2020;Leung et al 2021;Taylor 2021), and aggressive instore consumer behavior.…”

Toilet Paper, Minced Meat and Diabetes Medicines: Australian Panic Buying Induced by COVID-19

“…Access to prescribed medications is important in reducing morbidity for people with diabetes [ 8 ]. While the pandemic has led to panic buying and subsequent shortages of consumer goods like toilet paper [ 9 , 10 ] and minced meat [ 11 , 12 ], it is unclear what impact a global pandemic may have on diabetes medication demand across the world. Australia offers an opportunity to study this, with readily available dispensed medicines data and is of interest as it imports over 90% of medicines—hence is highly dependent on global supply chains [ 13 ].…”