While governments consult the best scientists for guidance on how to slow the spread of the coronavirus, one of the most striking features of the public’s initial response was the panic buying and hoarding of essential items such as soap, hand sanitiser, food and toilet paper. This behaviour was decried on social media as purely selfish but – with the exception of the people stockpiling items to sell at exorbitant prices online – I don’t think that’s the full story.
Hoarding is often seen in response to psychological distress. If you’ve watched any TV show about hoarders, invariably there’s been some significant loss at the root of it – a shock redundancy, the sudden end of a marriage or the loss of a child. In these cases the subsequent hoarding serves a psychological or emotional function that we can see in the current crisis, too.