Prepping due to Corona: Why hamsters German toilet paper?
In addition to disinfectants, face masks, noodles, and rice, the influx of German is mainly a product of insatiable: toilet paper!
But why it’s hoarding, of all things, toilet paper, and neither helps protect front of the Coronavirus, nor in any other way to Survive would be useful?
An attempt to decrypt with experts from the trade, and the psychology of the phenomenon of the empty toilet paper shelves.
Toilet paper is a scarce commodity
What is first spread in the Form as a single, amusing pictures in the social media, has now become a ubiquitous reality: the Empty supermarket shelves, where a few days ago, toilet paper and kitchen rolls were to be found in lush Abundance.
People were hoarding toilet paper and even though in the markets at high speed is used, exceeds the demand currently on offer.
A Problem not only in the retail sector to observe.
Even in the Internet, the demand for the hygiene article over the weekend has exploded to over 1,000 per cent, as an analysis of billiger.de shows.
The reasons behind the Hamster phenomenon
From the testimony of a social psychologist Andy Yap, a Professor at INSEAD in Singapore, to the online magazine’dw’ can be three reasons for the Hamster-behavior summarize:
Control: In a crisis, want to people the feeling of control.
The own environment: If you when family and friends observed that you determine Goods stock up, there is a tendency for the behavior to copy.
Social Media: The images of empty shelves, give you the feeling that soon no more could be, and you now have a better strike should.
In one study, the Professor was able to notice “that people buy in the case of a loss of control and more functional products. Products that will help you to solve problems. These are mainly products that can help you to regain control,“ said Yap.
Accordingly, an immense supply of toilet paper may seem to give the Illusion, at least to keep your body hygiene under control – so questionable the also.
Actually, other psychologists have come to this realization but.
So Baruch Fischhoff, a psychologist, says the Institute for policy, Carnegie Mellon University, that the feeling of the preparation, brings back to itself through the purchase of toilet paper, a sense of control, even in a seemingly helpless Situation.
From a psychological point of view, the Hamster would make of behavior that’s why a lot of sense, because “depending on how the people assess the Situation to need all the toilet paper in the end really, it could be worth the effort. Because it gives you the feeling to have done everything they could, and so may even be free on other things as the Coronavirus thinking,” he says in the’news portal CNN’.
Is justified by the fear of scarcity?
But even if the Hamsters in psychological terms to explain it in practical terms, in fact, needed? You can expect food shortages?
To the Christian, Böttcher, speaker of the Federal Association of the German grocery trade (BVLH) has a clear opinion: “The supply of the population with food is secured,” he explains to’inFranken’.
In the case of hygiene articles such as toilet paper, the logistics chain operates just a little differently than in the case of food: “you are ordered usually rare, because they normally demand less,” explains Böttcher.
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The logistics chain of the hygiene articles
It would of various factors – including the size, the location and the level of technology in the market – whether it’s a sold-out product standing right on the next day, back on the shelf or it will take a little longer.
As a result of intensified border controls, it could currently come to delays in delivery.
A fundamental scarcity of certain products, the BVLH was so far however.
This statement is damage under the dash also, Federal agriculture Minister, Julia Klöckner, this afternoon again and criticised sharply the hamster purchases: “you. Therefore, my appeal to the consumers: Keep calm, buy them Wisely.”
Sources
- Mirror: “The food supply is secure”, retrieved on 17.03.2020 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/corona-pandemie-die-lebensmittelversorgung-ist-gesichert-julia-kloeckner-a-a029af97-63cc-4e69-8df7-91dffe364ac5
- DW: “Coronavirus: The psychology behind the hamster purchases”, retrieved on 17.03.2020: https://www.dw.com/de/coronavirus-die-psychologie-hinter-den-hamsterkäufen/a-52738492
- CNN: “The psychology behind why toilet paper, of all things, is the latest coronavirus panic buy”, retrieved on 17.03.2020: https://www.dw.com/de/coronavirus-die-psychologie-hinter-den-hamsterkäufen/a-52738492
- inFranken: “hamster purchases due Coronavirus: Why toilet paper in supermarkets is often lacking”, retrieved on 17.03.2020: https://www.infranken.de/ueberregional/deutschland/hamsterkaeufe-wegen-coronavirus-warum-toilettenpapier-in-vielen-supermaerkten-ausverkauft-ist;art180,4972974
- Research Gate: “Control Deprivation Motivates the Acquisition of Utilitarian Products”, retrieved on 17.03.2020: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319879276_Control_Deprivation_Motivates_Acquisition_of_Utilitarian_Products
Larissa Bright Mouth
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