During times of crisis, it has become clear that we make irrational decisions. A good example of this is during the first COVID-19 outbreak where, here in Singapore and all around the world, I noticed some abnormal behavior. While I was at the supermarket, I saw aisles after aisles of empty shelves, and checkout lanes packed with hundreds of frantic shoppers. But it’s not just me who has noticed the extreme behaviour. People all over social media were talking about this new behavior which they were calling “panic buying”. The majority of people classify panic buying as irrational, panic-driven behavior, but some argue otherwise. According to an article from The Jakarta Post, “preparing for a period of isolation is not the result of irrational fear but instead a valid, logical response. I disagree with this because by panic buying, we are buying far more than we need, which can lead to wastage, and we’re also preventing people who are in genuine need of supplies from getting them.
So in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, what was causing people to “panic buy”? Well the answer is simple; anxiety, a psychological factor we all know about. The effect it has on our decision making was shown in a study, by The Journal of Neuroscience, where researchers monitored the effect anxiety had over decision making in rats by making them perform specific tasks and injecting half of them with anxiety-inducing drugs. It was found that anxiety had a numbing effect on the neurons in the prefrontal cortex of the rats injected with the anxiety-inducing drug, and therefore led them to make poor decisions. Anxiety also has this effect on our decision making which is why when we’re anxious, we tend to make irrational decisions. Another factor in play was the Herd Mentality where people were observing other people panic buying, and as a result, had an increasing sense of urgency to do the same thing.
While panic is a big factor in how people make decisions, especially during times like the COVID-19 outbreak, it's not the only factor. According to Ido Erev, a professor of behavioral science and management at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel and president of the European Association for Decision Making, a minority of people - “10 to 30 percent, depending on the situation, continue to over-react and overestimate the risk”, meaning the majority of people have another problem: complacency.
What do I mean by complacency?
Amidst the first lockdown, I noticed that people were ignoring the rules for social distancing, and were going out to ‘get-togethers’ with friends and family - ignoring the call for social distancing. That’s what I mean by complacency - these people were underestimating the risk of the virus, thinking that the risk of the virus was lower than it was. The reason behind their actions is not because they’re insensitive but instead egocentric. Our default is to pay attention to the impact others have on us and are therefore usually unaware of the impact our actions have on others. Due to the possibility of people being asymptomatic, the virus is much harder to contain, and it’s best if people follow safety distancing regulations so as to mitigate the risk.
Governments are already making rules in an attempt to restrict the spread of COVID-19, but if they want everyone to follow them, governments must have strong rule enforcement, imposing fines or other penalties on people who are violating the rules. This kind of policy may be an inconvenience to citizens, but in a time like this, the benefits of a policy like this outweigh the cost.
But governments are not the only ones who have a part to play in our fight against COVID-19. We can play our part in restricting the spread of COVID-19 by preventing irrational behavior in ourselves and others, forming communities online or in real life so that people don’t have to make decisions alone, which is beneficial as we can learn from others’ experiences, in turn strengthening our own decision making, and vice versa. We can also prevent irrational behavior in ourselves by taking responsibility for our actions rather than dismissing them as someone else’s problem, consulting health officials and doing some research before making a final decision. Irrational behaviour and decision making may seem like the least of our concerns in a time like now, where the world seems to be crumbling into chaos, but if we don’t fix this issue in ourselves and others now then the effects of the pandemic will only worsen, leaving a further damaged and fragile society.
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