Social perspectives of panic buying

ABSTRACT

Panic buying has become a frequent occurrence in many societies as a result of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to stockout and supply chain disruptions. It has been proposed as a psychological phenomenon, and different controlling measures have been forwarded recently. Panic buying especially during a public crisis has many consequences like negative impact on social stability, economic order, and enterprise management and consumer psychology. All human beings are members of a society. Therefore, the decisions made by them are influenced by the attitudes, opinions, and beliefs of the larger social group. Social influence is a way in which individuals adjust their behavior in order to meet the demands of a social environment. There are several types of social influences that could explain the phenomenon of panic buying. Apart from individual factors like fear of unknown, poor coping mechanism, losing control, and insecurity, there is a major role of socio-psychological factors which account for the influence of the social network of an individual to this phenomenon. In this chapter, we aim to discuss this construct on the basis of different socio-psychological theories. We also discuss the influence of social structure on panic buying and give recommendations on controlling it. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)