When Social Interaction Backfires: Frequent Social Interaction During the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Associated With Decreased Well-Being and Higher Panic Buying.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kim H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8357996 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:There is inadequate understanding of how social media can shape fear and consumer responses in the manner of consumer panic buying while Covid-19 is spreading across the world. Through taking a social constructionism position this research focused on what people think and feel at an individual and collective level on the role of social media to create panic behaviour. Data have been collected from thirty-four consumers who have minimum one active social media account. These participants are contacted through telephonic interview due to maintaining the social distancing. Findings reveal that uncertainties and insecurities proof, buying as persuasion, product unavailability proof, authorities' communication, global logic, and expert opinion are some of the causes on social media platforms that developed the situation of consumer panic buying during Covid-19 crises. Furthermore, the unprecedented level of real-time information on Covid-19 at users' fingertips can give them the tools they need to make smart decisions, but also make them more anxious about what is to come; experts say that may lead to panic buying or stockpiling of products. The study has tried to develop understanding about how social media generates social proof and offers a window into people's collective response to the coronavirus outbreak and shapes panic buying reaction. The study has provided a consumer panic buying theory based on the results of this study and on existing theories, such as global capitalism/information society risk society, social influence, and social proof. These theories help to understand how global logic is built due to the use of social media and how different social proofs are generated which developed the behaviour of consumer panic buying due to Covid-19 pandemic.
| S-EPMC7493764 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We analyze the timing, magnitude, and income dependence of pharmaceutical panic buying around the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hungary. We use district-level monthly and daily administrative data on detailed categories of pharmaceutical purchases, merge them to income statistics, and estimate multilevel panel models. Our main results are as follows. First, the days of therapy (DOT) of pharmaceutical purchases increased by more than 30% in March 2020, when major lockdown measures were announced. This pattern holds for almost all categories of pharmaceuticals. Second, shortly after the panic reactions, the aggregate amount of pharmaceutical purchases returned to their preshock levels; however, the frequency of pharmacy visits decreased. Third, the panic buying reaction was significantly stronger in richer geographical areas, where-according to the daily data-people also reacted earlier to the pandemic-related news. Overall, the results suggest that panic buying of pharmaceuticals can have detrimental effects on vulnerable populations.
| S-EPMC8420393 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic led to mental health fallout in the US; yet research about mental health and COVID-19 primarily rely on samples that may overlook variance in regional mental health. Indeed, between-city comparisons of mental health decline in the US may provide further insight into how the pandemic is disproportionately affecting at-risk groups.PurposeThis study leverages social media and COVID-19-city infection data to measure the longitudinal (January 22- July 31, 2020) mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in 20 metropolitan areas.MethodsWe used longitudinal VADER sentiment analysis of Twitter timelines (January-July 2020) for cohorts in 20 metropolitan areas to examine mood changes over time. We then conducted simple and multivariate Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions to examine the relationship between COVID-19 infection city data, population, population density, and city demographics on sentiment across those 20 cities.ResultsLongitudinal sentiment tracking showed mood declines over time. The univariate OLS regression highlighted a negative linear relationship between COVID-19 city data and online sentiment (β = -.017). Residing in predominantly white cities had a protective effect against COVID-19 driven negative mood (β = .0629, p < .001).DiscussionOur results reveal that metropolitan areas with larger communities of color experienced a greater subjective well-being decline than predominantly white cities, which we attribute to clinical and socioeconomic correlates that place communities of color at greater risk of COVID-19.ConclusionThe COVID-19 pandemic is a driver of declining US mood in 20 metropolitan cities. Other factors, including social unrest and local demographics, may compound and exacerbate mental health outlook in racially diverse cities.
| S-EPMC8266050 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:Panic buying is an emerging phenomenon observed during, but not restricted to, pandemic. Aim:We aimed to evaluate the nature, extent, and impact of panic buying as reported in the media. Methods:This study was conducted by collecting the information from the English media reports published till 22nd May 2020. A structured format was developed to collect data. Searching was done by using the keyword "panic buying". We have excluded the social media posts discussing the panic buying. Results:The majority of media reporting was from the USA (40.7 %), and about 46 % of reports highlighted the scarce item. Approximately 82 % of the reports presented the causes of panic buying whereas almost 80 % report covered the impact of it. About 25.7 % of reports highlighted the rumor about panic buying and only 9.3 % of reports blamed the government. Only 27.1 % reports described the remedial measures, 30.8 % reports conferred the news on the psychology behind panic buying and 67.3 % news displayed the images of empty shelves. Conclusion:A high proportion of reports on panic buying have been found from the developed countries discussing the causes & impact of panic buying on the basis of expert opinion.
| S-EPMC7365627 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In times of heightened uncertainty, consumers face incentives to build up precautionary stocks of essential supplies. We study consumer spending dynamics during one such time, the first infection wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using household scanner data covering fast-moving consumer goods in the United Kingdom. We document large increases in demand for storable products, such as food staples and household supplies, in the days before lockdown. Households in all socio-economic groups exhibit unusually high demand pre-lockdown, but there is a clear gradient, with the largest demand spikes for wealthier households. Although stories of people purchasing extreme amounts received a lot of attention, higher aggregate demand was mainly driven by more households than usual choosing to buy storable products, with only small increases in average quantities bought on a given trip. Temporary limits on the number of units per transaction, introduced following the demand spike, are therefore unlikely to lead to the avoidance of stock-outs.
| S-EPMC8209877 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In view of 2020 outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19, the paper examines the relationship between government measures for combating the pandemic and their side effects. Panic buying is identified as one such side effect. Among various models and measures undertaken by government to manage the pandemic, timed-intervention policy is commonly practiced by most countries. This paper examines the timing effect between government measures and panic buying. Three studies were undertaken to understand the timing effect and identify a connection between timed measures and consumer behaviours. Semantic analysis, secondary data search, and big data analytics were deployed to address the research aim. Although claiming a causal relationship is cautioned, the findings reveal a connection between timing of government measures and panic buying. These findings are discussed with the support of real-life evidence. Implications for researchers and practitioners conclude this paper.
| S-EPMC7414736 | biostudies-literature
Project description:We report on a trial of the neighbourhood thriving framework (NTF), a conceptual framework from psychology and social science for measuring collective subjective social well-being. It combines the notions of feeling good and functioning effectively in a neighbourhood social environment in an indicator set of 15 conceptual dimensions. An online questionnaire was used to measure neighbourhood thriving (NT) among 212 pro-social volunteers involved in revitalising neighbourhoods in the UK city of Stoke-on-Trent between May and October 2018. Exploratory factor analysis revealed 11 factors that made conceptual sense including three social epidemiological pathways to well-being, networks, participation and pro-social behaviours, and four criteria for flourishing societies, autonomous citizenship, safety, cohesive communities and resilience. The 11 sub-scales of NT showed satisfactory internal consistency reliability and preliminary evidence of construct validity. The sub-scales were used tentatively to examine NT among the volunteer sample, which showed the highest sub-scale score for Positive Regard and the lowest score for Celebration. Different levels of NT were observed among the community, with age and income positively associated with higher levels of NT. Further validation work is needed before the NT scales can be used with confidence. Validated scales offer potential benefits including: measuring NT pre- and -post project implementation; establishing which dimensions of NT are, and are not, working well in a community and need strengthening through further initiatives, and establishing which specific groups of people are experiencing lower levels of NT and designing projects that meet their needs.
| S-EPMC7286207 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Large samples of data from the World Values Survey, the US Benchmark Survey and a comparable Canadian survey are used to estimate equations designed to explore the social context of subjective evaluations of well-being, of happiness, and of health. Social capital, as measured by the strength of family, neighbourhood, religious and community ties, is found to support both physical health and subjective well-being. Our new evidence confirms that social capital is strongly linked to subjective well-being through many independent channels and in several different forms. Marriage and family, ties to friends and neighbours, workplace ties, civic engagement (both individually and collectively), trustworthiness and trust: all appear independently and robustly related to happiness and life satisfaction, both directly and through their impact on health.
| S-EPMC1693420 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The over-purchasing and hoarding of necessities is a common response to crises, especially in developed economies where there is normally an expectation of plentiful supply. This behaviour was observed internationally during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the absence of actual scarcity, this behaviour can be described as 'panic buying' and can lead to temporary shortages. However, there have been few psychological studies of this phenomenon. Here we propose a psychological model of over-purchasing informed by animal foraging theory and make predictions about variables that predict over-purchasing by either exacerbating or mitigating the anticipation of future scarcity. These variables include additional scarcity cues (e.g. loss of income), distress (e.g. depression), psychological factors that draw attention to these cues (e.g. neuroticism) or to reassuring messages (eg. analytical reasoning) or which facilitate over-purchasing (e.g. income). We tested our model in parallel nationally representative internet surveys of the adult general population conducted in the United Kingdom (UK: N = 2025) and the Republic of Ireland (RoI: N = 1041) 52 and 31 days after the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were detected in the UK and RoI, respectively. About three quarters of participants reported minimal over-purchasing. There was more over-purchasing in RoI vs UK and in urban vs rural areas. When over-purchasing occurred, in both countries it was observed across a wide range of product categories and was accounted for by a single latent factor. It was positively predicted by household income, the presence of children at home, psychological distress (depression, death anxiety), threat sensitivity (right wing authoritarianism) and mistrust of others (paranoia). Analytic reasoning ability had an inhibitory effect. Predictor variables accounted for 36% and 34% of the variance in over-purchasing in the UK and RoI respectively. With some caveats, the data supported our model and points to strategies to mitigate over-purchasing in future crises.
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Project description:We document a link between the relational diversity of one's social portfolio-the richness and evenness of relationship types across one's social interactions-and well-being. Across four distinct samples, respondents from the United States who completed a preregistered survey (n = 578), respondents to the American Time Use Survey (n = 19,197), respondents to the World Health Organization's Study on Global Aging and Adult Health (n = 10,447), and users of a French mobile application (n = 21,644), specification curve analyses show that the positive relationship between social portfolio diversity and well-being is robust across different metrics of well-being, different categorizations of relationship types, and the inclusion of a wide range of covariates. Over and above people's total amount of social interaction and the diversity of activities they engage in, the relational diversity of their social portfolio is a unique predictor of well-being, both between individuals and within individuals over time.
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