Trying to calm down

Trying to calm down25.03.2020Psychologist explains the coronavirus shoppingThe desire to calm down, take control of the situation and take care of themselves and their loved ones is driving many people today who are shopping for groceries, canned food and toilet paper, experts say. The COVID-19 coronavirus is causing some people to fear the unknown.
Panic buying of long-life foods, toilet paper, paper towels and antiseptics has been observed in supermarkets around the world. In recent days this wave has reached Russia: People and the media in different regions of the country, report empty shelves in a number of stores with buckwheat groats, canned food and "toilet paper. Ilya Vlasenko, spokesman for the Association of Retail Trade Companies (ACORT), said that stores have no problems with food stocks.
In Tomsk the demand for cereals, canned food and toilet paper also increased. Tomsk citizens are especially keen on buying buckwheat. Retail chains have already announced that they are increasing the supply of goods to stores. Residents of the city are asked not to buy up mass-products. Their deficit is not expected.
We need to calm down"Such reactions are usually caused by fear of the unknown. The media is now full of news about buying up everything en masse, people are afraid that there will be nothing left for them," explains Azamat Naiman, head of the psychological service of Tomsk State University.
According to the specialist, mass buying of goods can be characterized as "a legal way to calm down, settle your emotional state. The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is a new situation that people are facing, they don't know how to react, stress appears.
The desire to provide food is a primal human defense mechanism, the expert notes.
"If we consider in the historical time period, mankind has overcome hunger recently. We are several thousand years old, but hunger was completely defeated a hundred years ago. The desire to secure food is one of the basic biological instincts: to find sustenance. Especially when you think you might not get something given the empty shelves," Azamat Naiman told the vtomske.ru reporter.
He noted that some people make provisions for the whole family. It's a kind of a show of caring. To avoid buying up goods in very large quantities can help a list that will list - what to buy.
"In order not to start buying up everything in the store en masse out of fear, you can try to write down a purchase plan back home. The items you really need, in what quantities, so you don't buy more when you get there," Nyman says.
He is convinced that the responsibility for people's behavior also lies on the media, which need to provide only relevant and reliable information.
According to Andrew Yep, associate professor of organizational behavior at INSEAD Business School and Research Institute in Singapore, when people lose their subjective sense of control, they start buying things to solve the problems that led to the initial loss of control.
"In other words, when you're alarmed about a virus, you start buying items that could potentially prevent infection or make the places around you cleaner. People end up buying masks, hand sanitizers, detergents to keep the office and home clean and so on," he told Deutsche Welle.