A pandemic expert explains why people are panic buying toilet paper

People around the world are reacting to the new and dangerous threat of the coronavirus in their own unique ways.

You must have by now seen video clips and images of people around the world getting into physical scuffles for toilet paper in supermarkets.

Our social media feeds and messaging groups are filled with these rather perplexing scenes.

This panic buying of toilet paper has triggered a herd mentality, with people emulating others and fetching tonnes of the item, resulting in a massive shortage.

In Australia, the UK and the US, masses of people are rushing to stock up. However, none of them have offered a valid explanation for this panic buying phenomenon.

Now, a professor who wrote a book on the psychology of pandemics, has offered his take on this inexplicable behaviour.

READ MORE

Social distancing is one thing but can we really afford to abandon our communities over coronavirus

No kissing please were Swiss minister urges over coronavirus

Italians take to singing at windows to beat virus blues

“Why toilet paper? It doesn’t seem logical, does it? Because it’s not gonna stop you from getting infected,” said Dr Steven Taylor, author of the 2009 book “The Psychology of Pandemics.”

“One thing that happens during pandemics, when people are threatened with infection, is that their sensitivity to disgust increases. They are more likely to experience the emotion of disgust and are motivated to avoid that,” he said. 

“Disgust is like an alarm mechanism that warns you to avoid some contamination.

“So there is a very tight connection between fear of getting infected and disgust. And what better tool for eliminating disgusting material than toilet paper? I think this is how it became a conditioned symbol of safety,” he said.

Stockpiling of general items can be partly explained by people’s need to feel like they are prepared, according to Dr Taylor, who is a professor and clinical psychologist at the University of British Columbia.

“When you’re presented with a pandemic, a big new, scary thing, and the government is telling us that we don’t need to do anything special to deal with it — just wash your hands and so on — people feel the need to do something to prepare. So people are stocking up as a way of preparing themselves. When people do that, it's inevitable that some people are going to over shop.”

The potency of toilet paper as a symbol of preparedness and safety is given an added impetus by social media — there is a snowballing effect. 

“For a start, toilet paper — it’s big and bulky and distinctive, so people notice it more. And then it starts to acquire an increasing psychological value to people. It’s interesting when you talk to these shoppers when they leave the grocery store with arms full of toilet paper, and you ask them why they are doing it, some of them say: ‘I don’t know, everyone else was.’

“Fear is very contagious. So when those sorts of things go viral, when you see people around you buying things in a panicky way, it’s going to make you feel more anxious. We pick up cues from other people,” he explained. 

There is historic evidence of stockpiling during pandemics.

During the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak that affected one-third of the world's population, people hoarded stocks of Vicks VapoRub, according to Dr Taylor. 

Alas, the point the hoarders are missing is that neither VapoRub nor toilet paper will do much to stop the spread of the coronavirus.