Panic buying and fake news in urban vs. rural England: A case study of twitter during COVID-19

This paper explores the potential association between the spread of fake news and the panic buying behavior, in urban and rural UK, widely accessible on Twitter since COVID 19 was announced by the WHO as a global pandemic. It describes how consumer's behavior is affected by the content generated over social media and discuss various means to control such occurrence that results in an undesirable social change. The research methodology is based on extracting data from texts on the subject of panic buying and analysing both the total volume and the rate of fake news classification during COVID-19, through crowdsourcing techniques with text-mining and Natural Language Processing models. In this paper, we have extracted the main topics in different phases of the pandemic using term frequency strategies and word clouds as well as applied artificial intelligence in exploring the reliability behind online written text on Twitter. The findings of the research indicate an association between the pattern of panic buying behavior and the spread of fake news among urban and rural UK. We have highlighted the magnitude of the undesired behavior of panic buying and the spread of fake news in the rural UK in comparison with the urban UK.

Panic buying in the second wave of COVID-19: the moderating effect of past buying experience

PurposeWith the advent of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need to analyse the scenario of panic buying (PB) behaviour of the customers which was evident in the first wave. This paper aims to examine the PB scenario as well as the moderating effect of past buying experience (PBE) on PB in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on the theories of stimulus-organism-response model and the competitive arousal model. Based on these theories, this paper investigates how panic situation created by external stimuli such as perceived scarcity (PS), perceived risk (PR), news in media (NM) and social learning affect the perceived arousal (PA) among people which in turn influence the PB behaviour of customers. Data were collected from 253 customers from different parts of India. Structural equation modelling is used to analyse the moderating effect of PBE on the PB in the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. FindingsThe results indicate that the PS, PR and NM continue to be strong predictors of a buyer for PA. However, the PB is not reinforced by the moderation effect of PBE. Research limitations/implicationsThis paper investigates the consumers' PB behaviours in the wake of third wave of COVID-19 pandemic which add to the existing literature of COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, this study also examines how previous buying experience can moderate the PB behaviour of the customers in subsequent phases of COVID-19 pandemic. This supports the potential effectiveness of self-regulation as an intervention strategy for reducing PB behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic. Practical implicationsThis study emphasises the impact of external stimuli like PS, PR and media coverage on PB behaviour, marketers and policymakers should manage to avoid triggers. Although PBE may not moderate PB during a pandemic, it can play a significant role in future buying behaviour. Anticipating potential triggers and designing effective marketing strategies that cater to customers' needs can help manage PB behaviour during disasters or pandemics. In addition, promoting conscious consumption awareness and self-regulation practices among customers can help manage PB behaviour, benefit the environment and society and make customers more responsible buyers. Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study examines the PB behaviour of customers during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic for the first time. This study also investigates the moderating effect of PBE on the PB behaviour of customers during a pandemic which is new and significant that extends the literature on PB behaviour during a pandemic.

The Game Analysis among Governments, the Public and Green Smart Supply Chain Enterprises in Necessity Purchase and Supply during COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, panic buying, price inflation, and the pollution of production processes led to economic and social unrest. In response to the current situation, the current research takes less account of the subjective perception of public panic buying and the lack of reference to the reality of effective governance. First, this paper uses prospect theory to portray the public's perceived value of goods in panic buying and non-panic buying situations. Then, drawing on the experience of effective governance in China, a tripartite evolutionary game model of local government, the public and green smart supply chain enterprises is constructed under the reward and punishment mechanism of the central government. Then, this paper analyzes the strategic choices of each game player and the stability of the system equilibrium. The structure of the study suggests the following. (1) Improving local government subsidies and penalties, the cost of positive response and the probability of response can lead to an evolutionary direction where the public chooses not to panic buy and green smart supply chain enterprises choose to ensure a balance between supply and demand and increase pollution control in the production process. (2) Our study yields three effective combinations of evolutionary strategies, of which an ideal combination of evolutionary strategies exists. Non-ideal evolutionary strategy combinations can occur due to improper incentives and penalties of local governments and misallocation of limited resources. However, we find four paths that can transform the non-ideal evolutionary strategy combination into an ideal evolutionary strategy combination. (3) The central government's reward and punishment mechanism is an important tool to stabilize the tripartite strategy, but the central government cannot achieve effective governance by replacing incentives with punishment.

The victims, villains and heroes of 'panic buying': News media attribution of responsibility for COVID-19 stockpiling.

Societies often respond to a crisis by attributing blame to some groups while constructing others as victims and heroes. While it has received scant sociological attention, 'panic buying' is a critical indicator of such public sentiment at the onset of a crisis, and thus a crucial site for analysis. This article traces dynamics of blame in news media representations of an extreme period of panic buying during COVID-19 in Australia. Analysis reveals that lower socio-economic and ethnically diverse consumers were blamed disproportionately. Unlike wealthier consumers who bulk-bought online, shoppers filling trollies in-store were depicted as selfish and shameful, described using dehumanising language, and portrayed as 'villains' who threatened social order. Supermarkets were cast simultaneously as 'victims' of consumer aggression and 'heroes' for their moral leadership, trustworthiness and problem-solving. This portrayal misunderstands the socio-emotional drivers of panic buying, exacerbates stigma towards already disadvantaged groups, and veils the corporate profiteering that encourages stockpiling.

Now that everyone else has panicked, well horizontal ellipsis I have to panic: regulatory focus predicts panic buying during COVID-19

PurposeThe purpose of this paper was to identify social and behavioral factors responsible for panic buying during global pandemics such as COVID-19. Design/methodology/approachAccording to regulatory focus theory, behavior of individuals is regulated by two motivational systems - prevention and promotion. Prevention-focused behavior is motivated by security and safety needs and is associated with a strategic preference for vigilant means of goal pursuit. Prevention-focused vigilance is reflected in unwillingness to take risks and low ability to cope with uncertain environments and changing conditions. Promotion-focused behavior is motivated by growth and self-development needs and is associated with a strategic preference for eager means of goal pursuit. Promotion-focused eagerness is reflected in willingness to take risks and high ability to cope with uncertainty and change. Two studies tested the notion that panic buying during public health crises such as COVID-19 is related to the strength of the prevention system, perceived scarcity of products, perceived threat of the disease, age and gender. FindingsStudy 1 showed that the higher the perceived scarcity of products, the higher was the probability that panic buying would set in. Yet, different patterns emerged for men and women. Among women, the stronger the prevention focus, the stronger was the effect. Among men, by contrast, the stronger the prevention focus, the weaker was the effect. Study 2 showed that the higher the perceived threat of the disease, the higher was the probability that panic buying would occur. However, different patterns were observed with age. Among older adults, the stronger the prevention focus, the stronger was the effect. Among young adults, by contrast, the stronger the prevention focus, the weaker was the effect. Research limitations/implicationsImplications to address erratic consumer behavior during future pandemics are discussed. Originality/valueBy applying the theory of regulatory focus to consumer marketing, this research helps to identify marketing strategies to manage panic buying and develop contingency plans that address erratic consumer behavior during future pandemics.

Understanding and managing pandemic-related panic buying.

Pandemics are associated with panic buying (PB) of groceries and other supplies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, community leaders expressed frustration and bewilderment about PB. Psychological explanatory concepts, including those from social learning theory and the concept of the behavioral immune system, along with recent research, suggests the following account of pandemic-related PB. PB arises when people are told to go into self-isolation as part of pandemic containment interventions. Empirically, episodes of PB typically last 7-10 days and are likely initiated by highly fearful people. PB by an anxious minority of shoppers leads to fear contagion among other shoppers, amplified by widespread dissemination, via social media, of images and videos of PB and empty shelves in stores. Thus, a snow-balling effect arises where fear of scarcity creates real but short-term scarcity. People who are highly frightened of infection tend to have heightened disgust proneness. Toilet paper is a means of escaping disgust stimuli, and for this and other reasons, toilet paper became a target of PB for people frightened of contracting COVID-19. Exploitative or selfish over-purchasing also occurred, motivated by "dark" (e.g., psychopathic) personality traits. "Don't panic!" messages from community leaders were ineffective or counter-productive. Alternative forms of messaging are discussed.

Using AI to detect panic buying and improve products distribution amid pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered panic-buying behavior around the globe. As a result, many essential supplies were consistently out-of-stock at common point-of-sale locations. Even though most retailers were aware of this problem, they were caught off guard and are still lacking the technical capabilities to address this issue. The primary objective of this paper is to develop a framework that can systematically alleviate this issue by leveraging AI models and techniques. We exploit both internal and external data sources and show that using external data enhances the predictability and interpretability of our model. Our data-driven framework can help retailers detect demand anomalies as they occur, allowing them to react strategically. We collaborate with a large retailer and apply our models to three categories of products using a dataset with more than 15 million observations. We first show that our proposed anomaly detection model can successfully detect anomalies related to panic buying. We then present a prescriptive analytics simulation tool that can help retailers improve essential product distribution in uncertain times. Using data from the March 2020 panic-buying wave, we show that our prescriptive tool can help retailers increase access to essential products by 56.74%.

Artificial intelligence and prevention of panic buying during disasters

Panic buying occurs when unusually excess amounts of goods are bought in an anticipation of a crisis, perceived crisis, or in the aftermath of a crisis. Especially during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, it was influenced by individuals' threat perception, fear of uncertainty, maladaptive coping, and social modeling. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an ever-evolving field, and its role in mental health has been widely studied. The traditional aspects of AI, namely, probability, linguistics, learning, reasoning, knowledge representation, and perception, may all be helpful in targeting various correlates of panic buying. Even though literature on the use of AI and machine learning to prevent panic buying is very limited, the existing models in healthcare can be extrapolated to that effect. Predicting buying patterns during crisis, personalizing supplies, warning signals for optimal threshold of buying, surveillance in markets, and ensuring enough resources of essential items are some of the areas that can be helped by AI. However, specific research, understanding, funding, standardization, and technical optimization are needed in this area before the promising field of AI helps prevent panic buying. This chapter provides a bird's-eye view related to the intersections of AI and panic buying as well as the directions ahead. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Panic buying and health literacy during environmental disasters

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic posed numerous challenges not only to economic and health infrastructure but also to harm to the mental health of individuals. Literature suggests that environmental disasters cause fear and uncertainty among individuals. Panic buying is one of the responses exacerbated during the disaster characterized by an unexpected and rapid increase in excessive consumption. Health literacy emerged as a broader field in order to promote and process basic health information and take necessary steps to reduce health disparities. This chapter explains the association between panic buying and health literacy and how health literacy can affect it. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Disaster, health, and panic buying

Disasters have complex direct and indirect effects on population health and healthcare systems. Direct effects include risk of death, acute injuries, and destruction of healthcare infrastructure, while indirect effects include risk of communicable diseases and scarcity of food, water, medicines, and essential commodities. A disaster that threatens health, disrupts social order, and provokes shortage of commodities may precipitate behavior changes in population. One such behavior change is the well-documented phenomenon of panic buying where individuals buy unusually large quantities of goods that are perceived as necessary in anticipation of price rise or scarcity. It has received increasing attention during the COVID-19 pandemic due to its resurgence. The phenomenon has significant negative implications for population health and disease control. Attempts to control panic buying are more likely to succeed if they are predicated upon insights from an integrated biopsychosocial model. The chapter will assist readers in comprehending the complex relationships between disaster, health, and panic buying. This has important implications for prevention, public health, and policy planning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Determinants of panic buying during COVID-19: causes and consequences

PurposeDespite the abundant literature on panic buying during COVID-19 pandemic, the several causes and consequences of panic buying have been enormously ignored. The purpose of this study is to emphasize the consumer's behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic and illustrate the comprehensive theoretical model of consumers' panic buying to investigate its causes and consequences in a developing country empirically to uncover this gap.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected data from 419 households of all socioeconomic classes of Bangladesh. A hierarchical regression model analyzed the data.FindingsThis study finds that internal and external factors such as rumors, government strategies, fear and anxiety and health security significantly affect consumers' panic buying behaviors. This finding supports some theories of human behavior. This study also finds that panic buying has internal and external consequences such as price hike, shortage of supply of products, dissatisfaction of consumers and increase in utility (benefit) of the products but not on consumer's budget. This finding supports as well as contradicts some established theories of human and consumer behavior.Originality/valueThis study proves that panic buying cannot help the consumers and they are the ultimate sufferers of this. The findings of this study will help the government, media, suppliers and consumers to interact properly to maintain panic buying during a pandemic crisis. Giving a holistic explanation of the causes and consequences of panic buying by introducing some novel variables is a momentous strength of this study.

Disaster and consumption behavior

Disasters can affect people on a local, regional, and global scale. The majority of calamities, as well as their consequences on human behavior, are unavoidable. Disasters can have a devastating influence on consumer behavior, sometimes to the point of disrupting social integrity. During crisis scenarios (such as the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic), perceived scarcity of items and anticipated shortages of goods stimulate heightened consuming behavior in the form of panic buying. Understanding the relationship between disasters and consumer behavior will aid in the development of various prevention techniques to curb pathological consumption. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Panic buying and its intrinsic connection to disaster

Panic buying (PB) during disasters is a global phenomenon, though underresearched. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has gained prominence because of its adverse consequences. It has a reciprocal relationship with crises, i.e., it occurs during crises and can lead to the worsening of problems. PB can have different characteristics according to the type of disaster. The proposed models to understand the underlying mechanism of the PB include the causal model, cognitive model, model-driven causal factors, stimulus-organism-response and dual-system theory model, ABC model concerning social media information and compulsive PB, cultural dimension model, etc. Understanding the determinants of this behavior can help predict, prevent, and manage this condition, thus having public health and welfare implications during crises. This chapter intends to highlight the significant disasters and associated PB behavior, how PB behavior can affect disaster management, and the underlying mechanism of PB and its determinants. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

By bread alone: Baking as leisure, performance, sustenance, during the COVID-19 crisis

As the coronavirus crisis worsened, a series of news stories documented "panic buying" on grocery staples, including bread, yeast, and flour. News outlets began reporting what I had already concluded based on my own social media: in response, many people had started baking bread. Baking specialty bread, like sourdough, is a time-consuming process, which pre-COVID-19 was a leisure activity for some. Baking bread during isolation is an activity whose purposes are threefold: providing sustenance;filling newly available leisure time;and offering a way to demonstrate one's skill and activities on social media. I consider the sudden attention given to this niche area of cooking, and the ways that bread-making-as-identity is already being disputed online, with attempts to frame an increased interest in what is, ultimately, successful completion of domestic labor, as a threat to 'authentic' interest in specialty bread as culinary capital. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Prevention strategies of panic buying during disaster

Panic buying is arguably an (ir)rational human behavior that is observed at times of emergencies. Although the phenomenon has been noted across the globe, very little evidence has been identified to prevent it. We aimed to identify, assess, and categorize the prevention strategies of panic buying during disasters. Sensible media reporting, psychological measures (online group counseling measures, promotion of kinship), (de)marketing (rationing, avoiding price hike), public health authority measures (assurance of the stock, raising awareness, subsidized goods sales, reduction of import duty, monitoring and punishment, psychosocial support, direct, clear, and sensible communication to the people), and supply chain management (assurance of the stock, sustainable supply, import from an alternative source, product substitution, resilient e-commerce, rapid replenishment) were the major identified domains of prevention for panic buying. This chapter identified and discussed importantly and perhaps preliminary strategies for the prevention of panic buying relating them to the different phases of disaster. Preparedness for controlling the panic among the population during future outbreaks should have an emphasis on these identified domains of preventive strategies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Panic buying and environmental disasters: Management and mitigation approaches

Panic buying is a common response during crises;however, to date it has been a significantly under-researched area. Recent evidence suggests that an environmental stimulus, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, war, earthquakes, flooding, public health emergencies (SARS, MARS) can trigger this phenomenon. As an environmental crisis takes its toll, the understanding of panic buying becomes overlooked. Nevertheless, panic buying causes series of events separate from these primary events. Understanding the management of emergencies and disasters should be an integral part of dealing with panic buying since every major environmental crisis has the potential to initiate panic buying behaviour in the general public. This book will analyse episodes of panic buying and major environmental crisis focusing on specific prevention strategies. This book is a groundbreaking approach to join up the management of panic buying during a public health emergency. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychological underpinning of panic buying during pandemic (COVID-19)

This letter discusses the psychological underpinning of panic buying during the COVID-19 pandemic. Epidemics and pandemics are the impending public health challenges whereby fear and panic are integral human responses historically. Panic behavior during disaster and calamities is an expected response they threaten the ability to cope and destroy the existing equilibrium. Many a time, people develop much-unexplained behavior which differs from country to country, culture to culture. Panic buying / increased buying behavior has been observed during public health emergencies since the ancient period. However, the exact psychological explanation responsible for it has not sought systematically. A perception of scarcity is strongly linked with the panic buying behavior and hoarding behaviors increases if the scarcity develops for the immediate necessaries. It also creates a feeling of insecurity which in turn activates another mechanism to collect things. Fear of scarcity and losing control over the environment, insecurity, social learning, exacerbation of anxiety, the basic primitive response of humans are the core factor responsible for the panic buying phenomenon. Further observational, as well as qualitative studies, are warranted to explore the psychological perspective of panic buying behavior during the crisis moments which in turn would help to find out preventive measures during the future moments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Communication during disasters: Role in contributing to and prevention of panic buying

Panic buying usually happens before and during any environmental crisis or an adverse environmental stimulus at least such as a flood, sudden policy change (economic sanction), COVID-19 pandemic, or war. Mass behaviour is shaped by the disseminated message from various sources of mass media including social media platforms. Although the credibility of the contents has been challenged, it affects perception, modifies fear and anxiety, and potentiates group behaviour like panic buying and migration. Media depiction of short supply, uncertain conditions, long queues in front of the supermarkets, empty shelves, and inconsistent information about the primary disaster would disseminate panic buying behaviour. Messages ensuring the supply of staples, stable supply chain management, and adequate health literacy with direct, clear, and sensible communication would have a preventive role in panic buying during disasters. Here raises a big question, who will look after it during a pandemic or war? This chapter discusses the theoretical perspectives and practical suggestions on the communication pattern during an environmental disaster and how it affects panic buying behaviour. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID‐19 and consumer behavior: Food stockpiling in the U.S. market

The emergence of the COVID‐19 pandemic has brought radical changes in consumer spending patterns. One aspect of this change is food stockpiling detected in several countries. Using a univariate probit model, this paper relies on the COVID‐19 Impact Survey (2020) for American households to assess the likelihood of consumers stockpiling food in response to the stringent lockdown measures imposed by the government's pandemic regulations. Our findings reveal a set of significant correlations between marital status, age, race, occupation, household structure, and the propensity of stockpiling food during the pandemic. Furthermore, the results show that residents in urban areas are more likely to engage in food stockpiling compared with residents in rural and suburban areas. The paper also examines the nexus between residence areas, lockdown measures, and the probability of stockpiling food. This research reveals a significant association between psychological factors and the likelihood of stockpiling food in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic [EconLit Citations: D12, H12, I18, P25].

Disaster, public health, and panic buying

Panic buying is one of the various sporadic and unexpected human behaviours which was prominently witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic globally. In light of various man-made and natural calamities, food and various other household products for survival are more essential for people. Thus, stockpiling or panic buying becomes significant. This chapter presents panic buying during a public health disaster and public health response, along with the triggers as well as intervention strategies. The relation between disaster preparedness and panic buying is also marked in this chapter. A combination of elements such as policy changes, wars, rumours, curfew, price hike perception, coping behaviours, socio-psychological factors, and, moreover, the role of media had added to panic buying. How these elements had taken part in the expansion of stockpiling behaviour is also addressed. This chapter also comments on different controlling measures including behavioural and public health interventions and how the government or the public health authorities should incorporate the policies in reducing panic buying behaviour among their emergency response plans. In addition, the importance of communication between the public and the public health authorities or government officials is also sketched in this chapter. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)