KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 22, 2020 \u2013 Toilet paper is the media\u2019s poster child for excessive stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Months into the crisis, panicked buyers are still stripping grocery store shelves, stockpiling an item seemingly useless in a health emergency and stressing the limits of the supply chain to meet demand for other consumers.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re asking yourself why some buyers react this way, you\u2019re not alone. Mehdi Hossain, a äçÐÄvlogÃâ·ÑBÕ¾ assistant professor of marketing, is asking the same question \u2013 in a more formal way.<\/p>\n
Backed by a $135,825 grant from the National Science Foundation, Hossain is researching the phenomenon of panic buying and stockpiling \u2013 amid the coronavirus crisis \u2013 to try to get at the psychological roots of excessive stockpiling. The study, which is expected to be completed in September, will develop messaging to mitigate the consumer behavior now and for future crises.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has to be studied during the pandemic because of the uniqueness of this crisis in order to find the logical factors that are contributing to panic buying,\u201d says Hossain. \u201cThere are some commonalities across crises, but every situation has its own uniqueness. If you think about the previous crises in this decade, this pandemic is different. The virus has spread at such a faster rate. We are all being put in an uncertain situation. We feel we are not in control and we are trying to regain control of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
That anxiety over COVID-19 has caused stockpiling of numerous goods \u2013 such as hand sanitizer, gloves, masks and canned foods \u2013 fostering a worldwide problem that is more than just an inconvenience for consumers. It has resulted in vast shortages that have inflated consumers\u2019 costs and created a scarcity of needed supplies for first responders.<\/p>\n
For Hossain, whose primary research focuses on consumer decision making, the study is a natural way to use his expertise to contribute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time is unprecedented and everybody is contributing to fight this pandemic with the skillset they can offer. Studying the phenomenon of panic buying is the skillset that I can offer,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we can get to the root of it, we can offer a solution to prepare us for the next pandemic-like event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hossain\u2019s research will try to identify the psychological factors predominant among consumers who are stockpiling goods and frame public communications that can be disbursed through the media, government officials, and the marketplace during crises to mitigate the factors that trigger panic buying.<\/p>\n
Through partnering with a participant sourcing platform, Hossain is conducting a nationwide, online survey of about 2,750 consumers, collecting their consumption history over the past few months and comparing it with a list of more than 50 products linked to excessive stockpiling during the pandemic. The list includes household necessities such as toilet paper and disinfecting wipes and grocery items such as canned and frozen foods and milk, bread and eggs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will report for each of the items. Did they buy more than usual or significantly more than usual. We\u2019ll measure stockpiling in different ways,\u201d he says. \u201cAnother section of the survey will collect psychological traits that will tell us various factors that have been predominant. We will analyze that data to see which one correlates strongly with their stockpiling tendency.\u201d<\/p>\n
The findings will be used to develop communication materials that will be tested for their effects on behaviors of respondents over several more weeks of shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that we study a lot is framing communication that can actually influence your psychology and determine your behavior,\u201d Hossain says. \u201cIn my research in the past, I\u2019ve studied consumer donation behavior. I framed the solicitation material in certain ways and that led people to donate to certain causes and not to others. Through framing of communication, you can create a mindset that can actually influence psychological factors and impact decision making in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the research on panic buying and excessive stockpiling, Hossain expects a predominant factor among consumers will be the feeling that they have lost control of their lives. One reason, he says, is the inundation of information people have experienced during the pandemic, including messaging through social media, news media, and medical experts about what to do and not do.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s the way to turn this around, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are getting communications from many different sources. But if all these sources are telling us \u2018you are not out of control, you can regain control, don\u2019t panic,\u2019 it can minimize the psychological factors,\u201d Hossain says. \u201cOur plan is to generate this knowledge, put it out there and prescribe how different sources can use the message.\u201d<\/p>\n
In landing the NSF grant, Hossain recognized the contributions of the University\u2019s Office of Research and Development and Research Integrity. \u201cIt is amazing how the research office, sponsored projects and the institutional review board work in the background,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how helpful they are and the lengths they go to help us meet our deadlines. This support is critical so it\u2019s very important to acknowledge the work they provide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 22, 2020 \u2013 Toilet paper is the media\u2019s poster child for excessive stockpiling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Months into the crisis, panicked buyers are still stripping grocery store shelves, stockpiling an item seemingly useless in a health emergency and stressing the limits of the supply chain to meet demand for other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-75546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-business"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}