ArticlePsychiatry research2021
Why did all the toilet paper disappear? Distinguishing between panic buying and hoarding during COVID-19.
Article in Psychiatry research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Reducing Panic Buying During Crisis Lockdowns: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Theory-Based Online Intervention.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Development and validation of the medical students' self-reported selfishness questionnaire (MSSSQ): a context-specific design for assessing selfish tendencies in medical education.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Incident prescriptions for common cardiovascular medications: comparison of recent versus pre-2020 medication adherence and discontinuation in three universal health care systems.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2025Article
- Changes in value priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic-A 4-year cross-sectional study with German students.PloS one · 2024Article
- Defining collective irrationality of COVID-19: shared mentality, mimicry, affective contagion, and psychosocial adaptivity.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- The impact of paid social Q&A on panic buying and digital hoarding at the stage of coexistence with COVID-19: The moderating role of sensitivity to pain of payment.International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR · 2023Article
- A Model of Panic Buying and Workforce under COVID-19.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Understanding cultural factors in mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: when collectivism meets a tight culture.Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic led to panic buying in many countries across the globe, preventing vulnerable groups from accessing important necessities. Some reports inaccurately referred to the panic buying as hoarding. Although hoarding is a separate issue characterised by extreme saving behaviour, the two problems may be influenced by similar factors. Participants from Australia and the United States (final N = 359) completed online self-report measures of panic buying, hoarding, shopping patterns, perceived scarcity, COVID-19 illness anxiety, selfishness, and intolerance of uncertainty. Our findings showed that panic buying was related to hoarding symptoms (r's = .23 - .36), and yet, both were uniquely associated with different psychological factors. Whilst panic buying was most strongly related to greater perceived scarcity (r's = .38 - .60), hoarding was most related to a general intolerance of uncertainty (r's = .24 - .57). Based on our findings, future strategies to prevent panic buying should focus on reducing perceived scarcity cues in the community, as this seems to be the primary driver of panic buying. Another preventative strategy to reduce excessive acquiring and saving may be to implement educational programs to increase people's ability to tolerate distress and uncertainty.
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