Mass media and panic buying

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into light several erratic human behaviors. Panic buying is one of them. There is a dearth of evidence exploring the relationship between panic buying and other environmental issues. Nevertheless, media has a bidirectional relationship with the behaviors attributing as a spreading factor vis-a-vis a preventive factor. Spreading fear, rumor, scarcity, price hike, and supply hindrance heralded to panic buying. On the other hand, disseminating the government's action, expert opinions, underlying psychology, remedial measures, and its impact prevent the behavior. Drawing upon various media, communication, and social psychology theories such as agenda-setting theory, framing theory, priming theory, cultivation theory, social cognition theory, and risk perception, this chapter offers an understanding of the causative and preventive role of mass media in panic buying behavior during emergencies and uncertain situations among people. Finally, it provides some recommendations for policymakers and media managers on controlling panic buying. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)