Panic buying doesn’t just respond to a shortage, it creates one. And lessons learned during COVID-19 remain important in preventing future buying frenzy, according to behavioral scientists at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Dr Karina Luhn, a researcher in health and behavioral sciences at UniSC, says panic buying is driven less by who people are and more by how risk and social behavior is communicated during times of uncertainty.
“We saw this clearly during COVID-19,” said Dr. Luhn, whose collaborative research was published in a paper in 2016. behavioral science“Reducing Panic Buying During a Crisis Lockdown: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Theory-Based Online Intervention.”
“People panic-buying not because they’re anxious or bad at planning,” she says. “They were reacting to the belief that stockpiling is wise or necessary or what everyone else is doing.”
Supermarket shelves have been stripped of toilet paper, cleaning products and shelf-stable food as consumers rush to stock up during Australia’s coronavirus lockdown.
Despite repeated assurances that supply chains are stable, similar actions continue to recur during fuel shortages, extreme weather events, and other disruptions.
A study by Luhn and colleagues published in December 2025 found that people were more likely to buy more when they believed there were risks in not stockpiling or when they felt socially approved to stockpile.
“Panic buying is a rational response to uncertainty when people think, “If I don’t buy now, I’m missing out,” or “Everyone else is buying,” Dr. Luhn said.
“The problem is that if too many people do this at once, you end up with the shortage you were trying to avoid.”
Importantly, the study also reveals what doesn’t cause panic buying. Demographic factors such as age, gender, income, and household size were not reliable predictors, nor were personality traits such as intolerance of uncertainty and previous hoarding behavior.
“This shows that panic buying is a collective action problem, not an individual failure,” Dr. Luhn says.
Based on these insights, Dr. Luhn’s team tested whether changing the way messages were framed could reduce panic buying.
A randomized controlled trial presented Australian shoppers with a concise, evidence-based message designed to challenge perceptions of risk, social norms and the ‘smartness’ of stockpiling.
As a result, people’s willingness and intention to panic buy has significantly decreased, especially for hygiene products and non-perishable foods.
“The lesson from COVID-19 is that telling people ‘don’t panic’ doesn’t work,” Dr. Luhn said.
“What works is explaining how panic buying harms everyone, emphasizing that most people are buying normally, and addressing risk awareness before shelves start emptying.”
As Australia continues to face disasters and supply disruptions due to climate change, Dr Loon says applying these behavioral lessons early could help prevent panic buying before it takes hold.
“COVID-19 has shown that panic buying is predictable, which means it’s preventable,” she says.
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University of the Sunshine Coast
Reference magazines:
Rune, K.T. others. (2025). Reducing panic buying during crisis lockdowns: A randomized controlled trial of a theory-based online intervention. behavioral science. DOI: 10.3390/bs16010042. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-328X/16/1/42
