The aisles at the grocery store are still empty and the lines are still long. One of my Facebook friends said “I thought that all of the stockpilers were here last week!” Looks like it might be a while before I can find toilet paper and hamburger.
Dr. Steven Taylor is a Professor and Clinical Psychologist at the University of British Columbia. He’s also the Author of “THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PANDEMICS“, which was published 3 weeks before the first case of COVID 19 was diagnosed in China.
Was he surprised at the behaviors that he’s seen since the health crisis began? “Yep! Everything…except the toilet paper thing! Everything from the panic buying, the apprehension, the people that think it’s all over-blown, the conspiracy theories. They are all things that have come up in previous pandemics“.
Why do we think we need toilet paper? Dr. Taylor says “On social media we see images of people with overloaded shopping cards on social media. Toilet paper has come to symbolize urgency and fear of scarcity, Toilet paper in some people’s minds is a symbol of safety. When people are threated with infection, they tend to become more sensitive to disgust, because disgust is an emotion that keeps us from getting sick. Toilet paper is the tool from getting away from disgusting things.”
I don’t really understand why our brains work that way, but Dr. Steven Taylor IS a Psychologist who wrote the book “THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PANDEMICS“, so I guess that’s why so many of you bought up all of the toilet paper! Dr. Tyler had a lot more interesting things to say on “THE FIRST DAY”. Hope you’ll give our conversation a listen!
https://omny.fm/shows/first-day-with-terri-stacy/psychology-of-coronavirus-steven-taylor
