RAPID: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF PANIC BUYING DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK AND HOW TO MITIGATE THEM

冠状病毒大流行影响了人们的市场行为。恐慌性购买在世界各地的消费者中都很明显，给买家、社会和市场带来了巨大的成本。囤积和囤积造成必需品供应短缺，剥夺了情况下可能最需要这些必需品的其他人(例如，卫生保健提供者、老年人)，并人为地提高了价格水平。对于恐慌性买家来说，这种行为造成了库存管理问题。这项研究的重点是恐慌性购买的消费者心理，以及媒体、政策制定者、政府官员和零售商如何在此类史无前例的事件发生时构建与公众的沟通框架，旨在缓解这种行为的心理触发因素。目前的研究阐明了恐慌性购买的心理补救措施，并开出了一些行动，这些行动可能会保护供应链，确保必需品在人群中的平等分配，控制必需品价格上涨，并在疫情类似的情况下扩大消费者的财务福祉。这项研究是两项相互关联的研究，旨在解决新冠肺炎疫情引发的恐慌性购买问题。第一项研究探讨了当前危机期间恐慌性购买的潜在心理过程。通过一项在线调查，美国全国2750名受访者提供了相关心理因素和恐慌性购买倾向的衡量标准。第二项研究使用第一项研究的结果来开发交流框架和材料。然后，研究人员将受访者随机分配到不同的条件下，并评估不同条件对减少恐慌性购买和囤积的有效性。该项目由DRMS和既定的刺激竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)联合资助。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The coronavirus pandemic has influenced people’s marketplace behaviors. Panic buying has been evident among consumers all over the world, incurring substantial costs to the buyer, the society, and the marketplace. Hoarding and stockpiling creates shortage of supplies for necessities, depriving others who might be needing them the most in the situation (e.g., health care providers, older individuals), and artificially hikes price levels. For the panic buyer, this behavior creates inventory management problems. This research focuses on the consumer psychology of panic buying and how the media, policy makers, government officials and retailers can frame their communication with the general public at times of such unprecedented events, aiming to mitigate the psychological triggers of this behavior. The current research illuminates the psychological remedies of panic buying, and prescribes actions that may protect the supply chain, ensure equal distribution of necessities among the population, control price hikes of necessities, and extend consumers’ financial well-being in pandemic like situations. This research is two interrelated studies aimed at tackling the problem of panic buying owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first study explores the underlying psychological processes of panic buying during the ongoing crisis. Through an online survey, a U.S. national pool of 2750 respondents provides measures of relevant psychological factors and proneness to panic buying. The second study uses findings from the first study to develop communication frames and materials. The researcher then randomly assigns respondents to different conditions and evaluates the efficacy of the different conditions to reducing panic buying and hoarding.This project is jointly funded by DRMS and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.