© Jasmin Sessler/ Unsplash Following the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe and North America in March 2020, many people around the world began hoarding goods such as toilet paper. Some companies reported an increase in toilet paper sales of up to 700 percent, despite calls from governments to refrain from "panic buying". Which groups of people primarily hoarded all the toilet paper? Psychologists from the universities of St. Gallen and Münster and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig investigated this question. In an online study, they interviewed 1,029 adults from 35 countries at the end of March who they had recruited via social media. The main result: People who feel more threatened by COVID-19 and whose personality is characterized by a particularly high degree of emotionality and conscientiousness were more likely to stock up on toilet paper than people who do not have these characteristics. The study was published in the scientific journal "Plos One". In an online questionnaire in German and English, the scientists investigated to what extent the personal feeling of being threatened by the corona virus can explain whether people buy more toilet paper than they would normally do.
TO READ THIS ARTICLE, CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
And extend your reading, free of charge and with no commitment.
Your Benefits
- Access to all content
- Receive newsmails for news and jobs
- Post ads
