Content uploaded by Richard Rau
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Richard Rau on Jun 16, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
Content uploaded by Richard Rau
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Richard Rau on Jun 16, 2020
Content may be subject to copyright.
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Influence of perceived threat of Covid-19 and
HEXACO personality traits on toilet paper
stockpiling
Lisa GarbeID
1☯
, Richard Rau
2☯
, Theo ToppeID
3☯
*
1Institute for Political Science, School of Economics and Political Science, University of St.Gallen, St.Gallen,
Switzerland, 2Department of Psychology, University of Mu¨nster, Mu¨nster, Germany, 3Department of
Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
☯These authors contributed equally to this work.
*theo_toppe@eva.mpg.de
Abstract
Following the fast spread of Covid-19 across Europe and North America in March 2020,
many people started stockpiling commodities like toilet paper. Despite the high relevance
for public authorities to adequately address stockpiling behavior, empirical studies on the
psychological underpinnings of toilet paper stockpiling are still scarce. In this study, we
investigated the relation between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19, and stock-
piling of toilet paper in an online survey (N= 996) across 22 countries. Results suggest that
people who felt more threatened by Covid-19 stockpiled more toilet paper. Further, a predis-
position towards Emotionality predicted the perceived threat of Covid-19 and affected stock-
piling behavior indirectly. Finally, Conscientiousness was related to toilet paper stockpiling,
such that individuals higher in Conscientiousness tended to stockpile more toilet paper.
These results emphasize the importance of clear communication by public authorities
acknowledging anxiety and, at the same time, transmitting a sense of control.
Introduction
Within a few weeks, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has turned into a severe global
health crisis in spring 2019 [1]. With the increasing spread of the virus, the demand for partic-
ular commodities such as toilet paper has skyrocketed. Some companies reported an increase
of up to 700% in their sales [2–4]. Despite government appeals to refrain from “panic buying”
or stockpiling [5], supermarkets across countries face difficulties in stocking up toilet paper.
The resulting scarcity of toilet paper in some households has led to problematic consequences
such as the clogging of outfall pipes after people started using products other than toilet paper
[6]. In response to the increased stockpiling of toilet paper across countries, numerous media
articles sought to explain its underlying psychological processes [7–12]. However, to date,
most claims are hardly supported by empirical evidence despite recent calls for more social
and behavioral studies to support effective strategies in response to Covid-19 [13]. In this
PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 1 / 12
a1111111111
a1111111111
a1111111111
a1111111111
a1111111111
OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Garbe L, Rau R, Toppe T (2020) Influence
of perceived threat of Covid-19 and HEXACO
personality traits on toilet paper stockpiling. PLoS
ONE 15(6): e0234232. https://doi.org/10.1371/
journal.pone.0234232
Editor: Valerio Capraro, Middlesex University,
UNITED KINGDOM
Received: April 14, 2020
Accepted: May 21, 2020
Published: June 12, 2020
Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the
benefits of transparency in the peer review
process; therefore, we enable the publication of
all of the content of peer review and author
responses alongside final, published articles. The
editorial history of this article is available here:
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232
Copyright: ©2020 Garbe et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: All data files,
supplementals, and R code are available from the
Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/nbrg5/
Funding: The author(s) received no specific
funding for this work.
study, we examined the relationship between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19,
and the hoarding of toilet paper to learn more about its psychological underpinnings.
Which individual difference variables can account for toilet paper hoarding? On a superfi-
cial level, private stockpiling of limited resources may appear first and foremost as an instance
of selfishness. In fact, there exist stable and substantial individual differences in peoples’ con-
cern for their own vs. everyone’s welfare [14] and these differences are frequently found to
explain prosocial vs. antisocial behavior in contexts involving a shortage of resources [15].
Another explanation that has been prominently featured in the media revolves around an
overgeneralization of disgust. According to this notion, people experience an increased sensi-
tivity to disgust in times of a spreading disease [10] and toilet paper is hypothesized to serve as
a symbol of safety alleviating the perceived threat [11]. Consequently, stockpiling toilet paper
during the Covid-19 pandemic should be observed primarily among those who feel particu-
larly threatened by the virus. Although stockpiling as a result of perceived threat might be con-
sidered selfish by some, it is important to note that it would not necessarily reflect a
dispositional lack of prosociality. Instead, even the most humble and moral individuals might
stockpile toilet paper as long as they feel sufficiently threatened by the pandemic. Finally,
stockpiling toilet paper has also been interpreted in terms of classic psychoanalytic theory. In
this line of reasoning, individuals with a marked pattern of orderliness and self-discipline, or
an “anal-retentive personality” [16], are hypothesized to be particularly inclined to hoard toilet
paper [8,17]. At the same time, however, these individuals may also exhibit high levels of self-
control and may refrain from impulsive panic-purchases more easily.
In order to examine individual differences underlying toilet paper consumption empiri-
cally, we attended to the HEXACO model of personality in the present study. The HEXACO
model is rooted in lexical studies of personality descriptors across various languages and orga-
nizes individual differences along six broad personality domains [18]: Honesty-Humility
(characterized by the facets sincerity, fairness, greed avoidance, and modesty), Emotionality
(fearfulness, anxiety, dependence, sentimentality), eXtraversion (social self-esteem, social
boldness, sociability, liveliness), Agreeableness (forgiveness, gentleness, flexibility, patience),
Conscientiousness (organization, diligence, perfectionism, prudence), and Openness to Expe-
rience (aesthetic appreciation, inquisitiveness, creativity, unconventionality). As a widely
established and well-validated taxonomy, the HEXACO model allowed us to empirically
address many of the speculations expressed in the popular media during the Covid-19 out-
break in an objective and methodologically sound manner. Differences in people’s solidary
concern for others’ is captured in the Honesty-Humility dimension, differential tendencies to
worry and be anxious are captured in the Emotionality dimension, and differences in orderli-
ness and self-discipline are captured in the Conscientiousness dimension. Although we did
not have specific reasons to expect relations between toilet paper consumption and the
remaining HEXACO dimensions, we considered these as well for completeness.
To the best of our knowledge, only one study has so far examined the relationship between
personality traits and hoarding behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study focused
exclusively on the Honesty-Humility dimension and found initial evidence that hoarding was
driven by a lack of solidarity in a sample of UK residents [19]. However, no empirical study
exists on the link between toilet paper stockpiling and the remaining personality domains
which leaves the role of personality, defined more broadly, unanswered. In this study, we sur-
veyed an international sample of adults to explore the relationships between the HEXACO
personality dimensions, experiences of threat of Covid-19, and toilet paper consumption.
A more comprehensive understanding of how the perceived threat of Covid-19 and differ-
ent personality traits trigger stockpiling behavior has important implications for public poli-
cies directed at households and individuals as well as grocery stores selling toilet paper and
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 2 / 12
Competing interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
other scarce commodities. To date, governments and companies have implemented different
measures to guarantee comprehensive supply and a deeper psychological understanding of toi-
let paper stockpiling will help to evaluate and improve these measures.
Methods
Our study was conducted from March 23rd to March 29th, 2020, a period in which the total
number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 increased from about 378.200 to more than 650.000
[20]. Many national governments implemented partial or complete lockdowns during that
time (e.g., Germany or United States). Thus, this period was characterized by frequent and
drastic changes in public life and was accompanied by immediate shortages of resources such
as toilet paper. Due to the exploratory nature of our research question, our sampling strategy
was not based on power considerations to detect a specific effect. Instead, we aimed for a sam-
ple size of N= 1,000 as this would yield sufficient power (90%) to detect small effects (r= .10)
in a two-sided test at an alpha-rate of 5%.
Participants
In total, N= 1,029 adults from 35 countries took part in the study. The survey was advertised
via mailing lists and postings on social media platforms. Participation was anonymous and vol-
untary and participants did not receive any incentives. Before taking the survey, participants
provided written informed consent by confirming that their participation was voluntary, that
they understood the study’s goals, and that they knew that they could withdraw from participa-
tion at any time. We classified participants with respect to their place of residence (Europe,
United States/Canada, Other). Participants in the “Other” category were excluded from the
analyses due to the small size of that category (see S1 Table in the Supporting Information for
the sample size of each country). Table 1 provides a description of the final sample (N= 996
participants from 22 countries).
Materials and procedure
After providing informed consent, participants filled out the Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI;
[21]) which comprises four items for each of the six dimensions (one item per facet, 24 items
in total). They then indicated their currently perceived level of threat posed by Covid-19 on a
10-point visual analogue scale and provided information about current curfew regulations at
their place of residence (e.g., availability of local public transport; see Table 1). Further, partici-
pants described their toilet paper (ToP) consumption behavior. In particular, participants indi-
cated (a) their ToP shopping frequency in the past two weeks (not once,once,twice,three times
or more), (b) their ToP shopping intensity, i.e. how many packages of toilet rolls they bought
(none,one,two,three or more), (c) the amount of toilet rolls currently stocked in their house-
hold (none; 1 to 4; 5 to 8; 9 to 12; 13 to 16; 17 to 20; 21 or more), and (d) whether they had
stocked an unusual amount of toilet paper (less than usual,usual,more than usual). Then, par-
ticipants indicated whether and for how long their household had been in strict quarantine
(i.e., not leaving the house at all) as well as how many high-risk persons live in their household
(e.g., due to age or pre-existing condition). Finally, participants reported their age, gender,
place of residence, nationality, household size, as well as their political left-right placement on
a 11-point visual analog scale [22]. We created an English and a German version of this ques-
tionnaire (see S2 and S3 Tables for both versions of the questionnaire). All item translations
were discussed with native speakers of both languages and any disagreements were resolved.
The questionnaire was implemented via the online survey platform formr [23].
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 3 / 12
Data analytic approach
Initial inspection of the data revealed that some variables had limited variance and, thus, were
of limited explanatory value for our analyses (see Table 1). These variables pertained to curfew
regulations at the participants residence (e.g., whether schools or restaurants are closed), to the
Table 1. Descriptive statistics by place of residence.
Variable Measure Value
US/Canada (n = 267) Europe (n = 729)
M (SD)
Age in years 32.39 (10.64) 32.09 (9.36)
Gender %
Female 81.64 68.31
Male 15.73 30.59
Diverse 2.62 1.10
M (SD)
Household size 2.55 (1.18) 2.61 (1.70)
Days in quarantine 2.30 (4.05) 0.99 (3.17)
High risk people in household
�
0.41 (0.76) 0.28 (0.65)
Days between participation and first recorded case of Covid-19 in country 63.08 (1.67) 54.80 (9.70)
Political left right placement 3.00 (1.86) 3.33 (1.59)
% yes
Personal mobility restriction 60.67 84.64
Leaving the house is only permitted in specific professions
�
95.68 76.82
Leaving the house is only permitted in small groups
�
69.75 95.14
Restrictions on public life
�
98.13 99.04
Educational facilities are closed
�
100 99.86
Restaurant, bars, cafe
´s are closed
�
93.89 99.31
Local public transport is restricted 52.43 65.84
M (SD)
Toilet paper packages bought 1.85 (0.92) 1.81 (0.70)
Shopping frequency 1.63 (0.63) 1.71 (0.59)
Toilet rolls in household 12.47 (6.11) 8.90 (5.27)
%
Current amount of toilet paper is. . .
�
Less than usual 9.36 9.74
Usual 73.41 76.54
More than usual 17.23 13.71
M (SD)
Perceived threat by Covid-19 6.05 (1.99) 4.59 (2.15)
HEXACO Dimensions
Honesty-Humility 4.06 (0.57) 3.76 (0.68)
Emotionality 3.08 (0.66) 3.01 (0.64)
Extraversion 3.81 (0.62) 3.97 (0.64)
Agreeableness 2.92 (0.62) 2.85 (0.56)
Conscientiousness 3.60 (0.66) 3.42 (0.61)
Openness 3.92 (0.59) 4.02 (0.52)
M, mean; SD, standard deviation
�
Excluded from analysis due to limited variance.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232.t001
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 4 / 12
proportion of high-risk persons in the participants’ households, and to the (un)usualness of
the currently stocked amount of toilet paper and are not considered in the remainder of the
article. ToP shopping frequency and ToP shopping intensity were strongly correlated with one
another (r= .80) but only weakly correlated with the amount of stocked toilet rolls (rs = .27
and .21, respectively; see S4 Table for correlations of all variables included in the statistical
models). Given this heterogeneity, we examined our research question separately for each of
these ToP consumption indicators.
We analyzed the data in a series of multiple regressions aimed at explaining the per-
ceived threat of Covid-19 first, and stockpiling of toilet paper second. For each dependent
variable, we first computed a baseline model featuring several control variables that could
presumably be related to that variable without being of psychological interest in their own
right. These control variables were age, gender (female vs. male vs. diverse), household
size, personal mobility restrictions (yes vs. no), restrictions on public transport (yes vs. no),
number of days in strict quarantine, political left-right placement, residence (US/Canada
vs. Europe), and the number of days between participation and the first recorded case of
Covid-19 in the participants’ residence (retrieved from http://www.worldometers.info/).
We then entered the psychological predictor of interest in a second step to examine its
effect above and beyond the control variables of the baseline model. As the psychological
predictors, we considered the six HEXACO dimensions and, when predicting ToP con-
sumption, the perceived threat of Covid-19. Thus, each baseline model was followed by six
(when perceived threat was the dependent variable) or seven (when a ToP consumption
indicator was the dependent variable) models each of which addressed the unique predic-
tive value of one psychological variable.
Whenever we found a significant effect in this step, we allowed for an interaction with resi-
dence to test whether the effect was moderated by participants’ place of residence as a follow-
up analysis. To ease interpretation, continuous variables were z-standardized and categorical
variables were dummy-coded in all models. All analyses were conducted in R [24]. Data and
R-code are available at https://osf.io/nbrg5/.
Results
Measurement characteristics of the BHI
To make sure that our German translation of the BHI captured the same latent constructs as
the original English version, we tested measurement invariance for each personality dimen-
sion. Specifically, the fact that we were interested in the relation between personality and our
dependent variables (but not in country-level differences in personality) required metric (but
not scalar) equivalence. Thus, we compared a metric model in which indicators were con-
strained to be equal across versions with a configural model in which the four indicators of a
dimension were estimated freely across versions. The metric model was supported for each of
the six HEXACO dimensions, Δχ
2
(3) <6.58, p>.08 for all model comparisons. Internal con-
sistencies were modest (α
HH
= .50; α
E
= .37; α
X
= .64; α
A
= .36; α
C
= .54; α
O
= .49) as is
expected in short instruments that seek to maximize content validity [21].
Perceived threat of Covid-19
The baseline model for perceived threat of Covid-19 revealed that the likelihood to feel threat-
ened increases significantly with age (p= .019; see Table 2) and with the number of days spent
in quarantine (p= .002). Female participants felt more threatened by Covid-19 than male par-
ticipants (p= .001). Moreover, participants residing in Europe reported to feel significantly
less threatened than their North-American counterparts (p<.001). The models for the
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 5 / 12
HEXACO dimensions revealed a link between Emotionality and the perceived threat of
Covid-19 (p<.001) with participants higher on Emotionality reporting more perceived
threat.
Toilet paper consumption
For all variables indicating toilet paper consumption—shopping frequency, shopping inten-
sity, and number of stocked toilet rolls—the baseline models revealed a positive relation with
age (ps<.009; see Table 2). That is, older participants shopped more frequently, bought more
packages of toilet paper and had more toilet papers rolls in stock as compared to younger par-
ticipants. Participants residing in Europe shopped toilet paper more frequently than North-
American residents (p= .039) but had less toilet paper in stock (p<.001).
Table 2. Prediction of perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling.
Predictors Dependent Variable
Perceived Threat of
Covid-19
ToP Shopping
Frequency
ToP Shopping
Intensity
Stocked ToP
Baseline Model b SE b SE b SE b SE
Age 0.072 0.030 0.085 0.032 0.099 0.032 0.069 0.031
Female gender (ref: male) -0.226 0.069 -0.028 0.073 0.016 0.073 -0.063 0.070
Other gender (ref: male) -0.355 0.248 -0.224 0.262 -0.102 0.261 0.256 0.249
Household size 0.012 0.030 0.053 0.032 0.069 0.032 0.044 0.030
Personal mobility restriction -0.125 0.075 0.055 0.080 0.080 0.080 -0.087 0.076
Public transport restriction -0.021 0.063 -0.065 0.066 -0.080 0.080 -0.065 0.063
Days in quarantine 0.097 0.031 0.061 0.032 0.049 0.032 0.031 0.031
Political orientation (left to right) -0.007 0.031 -0.008 0.032 0.013 0.032 0.127 0.031
Place of residence -0.614 0.079 0.172 0.083 -0.055 0.083 -0.642 0.080
Days since first Covid-19 case -0.006 0.004 0.000 0.004 -0.001 0.004 -0.055 0.033
Incremental main effects of psychological variables b SE b SE b SE b SE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 — — 0.076 0.033 0.077 0.033 0.100 0.032
Honesty-Humility 0.026 0.032 -0.002 0.033 -0.008 0.033 0.045 0.032
Emotionality 0.188 0.031 0.041 0.033 0.018 0.033 0.039 0.032
Extraversion -0.039 0.030 0.012 0.032 0.018 0.032 -0.009 0.031
Agreeableness -0.026 0.030 -0.020 0.032 -0.004 0.032 0.001 0.031
Conscientiousness -0.047 0.030 0.059 0.032 0.064 0.032 0.061 0.031
Openness to experience -0.039 0.030 0.000 0.032 0.040 0.032 -0.075 0.030
Interaction effects of psychological variables and place of residence b SE b SE b SE b SE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 0.136 0.078 0.091 0.078 0.071 0.074
Honesty-Humility
Emotionality 0.101 0.066
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness 0.087 0.070 0.112 0.070 0.004 0.066
Openness to experience 0.010 0.065
Upper limit model determination
a
R
2
= .147 R
2
= .024 R
2
= .024 R
2
= .116
Significant regression weights (p <.05) are printed in bold. Interaction effects were only tested for models that involved a significant main effect for the psychological
variable at hand. ToP = Toilet Paper. Coding of place of residence: 0 = US/Canada; 1 = EU.
a
Model determination is presented for the model with the most influential psychological variable for the respective dependent variable.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232.t002
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 6 / 12
Turning to the psychological predictors, the perceived threat of Covid-19 was positively
related to all three ToP variables (ps<.025). Participants who reported to feel more threatened
shopped toilet paper more frequently, bought more packages, and had more toilet paper in
stock. Also, the models suggested that Conscientiousness is positively associated with toilet
paper consumption. In particular, participants high on Conscientiousness tended to shop
more frequently (p= .065), shopped more ToP (p= .045), and stocked more toilet paper (p=
.048).
Following up on these findings by allowing for an interaction term of the respective predic-
tor with participants’ place of residence did not yield any significant effects (all ps>.08). That
is, associations between psychological variables on the one hand and perceived threat of
Covid-19 and ToP consumption on the other hand did not differ systematically for USA/Can-
ada vs. EU residents.
Indirect effects of emotionality on toilet paper consumption
Given the link between Emotionality and perceived threat posed by Covid-19 on the one hand,
and perceived threat and toilet paper consumption on the other, we examined the indirect
effect of Emotionality on toilet paper consumption through threat perception. We therefore
re-estimated the models that involved Emotionality and perceived threat as predictors with the
lavaan package [25] and used bootstrapped confidence intervals to evaluate the significance of
the indirect effect.
For toilet paper shopping intensity and the amount of stocked toilet rolls, we found that the
indirect effect of Emotionality through perceived threat was significant (c’ = .016; 95% CI =
[0.002; 0.031] for ToP shopping intensity; c’ = .019; 95% CI = [-0.006; 0.036] for stocked toilet
rolls; see Fig 1). The indirect effects for ToP shopping frequency was marginally significant (c’
= .014; 95% CI = [0.001; 0.029]; see Fig 1). These results suggest that Emotionality may fuel the
feeling of being threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic which may consequently foster toilet
paper stockpiling.
Discussion
The three main findings of the current study are the following: First, the perceived threat of
Covid-19 predicts toilet paper stockpiling. Second, Emotionality predicts the perceived threat
of Covid-19 and thereby indirectly affects stockpiling behavior. Third, individuals high in
Conscientiousness engage in more toilet paper stockpiling. All these effects held across North
American and European countries and were robust across different indicators of toilet paper
stockpiling (i.e., shopping frequency, shopping intensity, and stocked toilet rolls). Importantly,
we ruled out that these effects were driven by socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gen-
der, household size, political attitudes) or by regulations of local authorities (i.e., restrictions of
personal mobility or public transport).
The most robust predictor of toilet paper stockpiling was the perceived threat posed by
Covid-19. People who feel more threatened by the pandemic stockpile more toilet paper.
Given that stockpiling is objectively unrelated to saving lives or jobs during a health crisis, this
finding supports the notion that toilet paper functions as a purely subjective symbol of safety.
We also found that this effect was partly based on the personality factor of Emotionality.
Around 20 percent of the differences in toilet paper consumption that were explained by feel-
ings of threat were based on people’s dispositional tendency to worry a lot and generally feel
anxious. At the same time, the remaining 80 percent of this effect were not found to be rooted
in personality differences. This suggests that how much people feel personally threatened by
Covid-19 also depends on psychological factors not accounted for in our study or on malleable
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 7 / 12
external factors such as the risk management by and trust in local authorities. Hence, these
findings highlight the potential of public communication to address individuals’ perceptions
of threat and thereby alter their shopping behavior. For instance, research on communication
strategies suggests that clear communication aiming to increase awareness of a disease and
providing simple behavioral instructions reduces people’s threat perception [26]. While it is
important to communicate the severity of a pandemic and appeal to people’s compliance to
necessary measures such as social distancing, communicators should be careful not to provoke
panic that can eventually result in dysfunctional behavior such as stockpiling (see also [27]).
This is also in line with the finding that fear can potentially be useful if people “feel capable of
dealing with the threat” ([13], p. 2). If fear is driven by strong emotions, however, people may
ignore factual information and engage in irrational behavior (ibid.).
In addition to the effect of perceived threat, we found personality differences in Conscien-
tiousness to be another robust predictor of toilet paper stockpiling. More conscientious people
tend to stockpile more toilet paper. This finding is in line with the expectation that long-
sighted and more orderly individuals engage in more stockpiling and does not support the
counternarrative that conscientious individuals refrain from impulsive panic buying due to
increased self-control. This finding implies that public communication is well advised to stress
the functioning of supply chains and the long-term availability of vital commodities. Such
rational appeal might exploit people’s long-sightedness and effectively counter the dysfunc-
tional intuition that commodities may become scarce in the near future.
In contrast to preliminary insights from Columbus’ study [19], we did not find Honesty-
Humility to be a significant predictor of toilet paper stockpiling. This implies that toilet paper
stockpiling might not be resulting from a lack of solidarity and, as such, moral appeals by pub-
lic authorities asking people to refrain from stockpiling might be less fruitful than expected.
However, the discrepancy between the present findings and the ones from Columbus’ study
[19] call for further scrutiny given that there were major differences between the two studies
from which diverging results may have emerged. For instance, we focused on toilet paper, sur-
veyed participants from 22 countries, and controlled for several socio-demographic and local
regulatory differences. In contrast, Columbus examined hoarding behavior more broadly,
focused on a UK-only sample, and did not control for third variables. More research is needed
to reveal which of these differences can resolve the discrepant findings with respect to the role
of Honesty-Humility and stockpiling.
Our analyses further revealed that with increasing age, people tend to stockpile more toilet
paper. Older people are more prone to a severe course of the disease and, thus, may be more
eager to prepare for strict self-isolation. In addition, in some countries, older people were
asked to self-isolate before more comprehensive lockdowns were put in place (e.g., [28]) which
might partly account for the age effect. Besides, our results revealed differences between Amer-
ican and European households. As compared to European participants, Americans reported a
higher perception of threat of Covid-19 which might result from different communication
strategies of public authorities or differences in public health systems. Also, Americans stock-
piled more toilet paper in their household and went toilet paper shopping less frequently as
compared to Europeans. This could be attributed to the circumstance that, on average, toilet
paper rolls come in bigger packages in the US (e.g., up to 36 rolls per package) than in most
European countries (e.g., between 8 to 16 rolls).
Fig 1. Panels indicate the indirect effects of Emotionality on (a) shopping frequency, (b) shopping intensity, and (c) stocked toilet
paper rolls. In each panel, c refers to the total effect of Emotionality and c’ refers so the indirect effect of Emotionality through the
perceived threat of Covid-19.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232.g001
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 9 / 12
While the current study provides valuable first insights into the psychological underpin-
nings of toilet paper stockpiling in the wake of a health crisis, some limitations will need to be
addressed in future research. For example, future studies might examine regional or even local
differences in personality effects on stockpiling by systematically sampling participants from
areas that are differentially affected by the pandemic and/or from urban vs. rural areas.
Although we did not observe differential psychological effects when comparing Europe vs.
North America, it is conceivable that regional differences with respect to the severity of the
health problems and to governmental responses will afford different psychological adaptations.
Data with higher power and a higher spatial resolution will be needed to unravel such modera-
tion effects. Second, future studies might consider individual differences outside of the HEX-
ACO framework. Here, the considered variables explained only up to 12% of the variation in
toilet paper consumption which suggests that some psychological explanations of toilet paper
consumption have likely remained unaccounted for. Future studies might thus consider more
narrow traits that are perhaps more immediately involved in motivating toilet paper stockpil-
ing (or a lack thereof) such as optimism [29] or perfectionism [30] or that directly tap into
antisocial tendencies such as the dark triad traits [31]. Also, experimental studies would be
required in order to explicitly test the directionality implied in our investigation of indirect
effects. Finally, a more detailed analysis of situational factors such as the increase of Covid-19
cases on a particular day or the communication strategies of local authorities might be promis-
ing avenues for explaining toilet paper stockpiling more comprehensively. Meanwhile, the
present study suggests that low anxiety and little desire to plan ahead are the best psychological
protective factors to refrain from irrationally stockpiling limited resources in times of a health
crisis.
Supporting information
S1 Table. Sample sizes for all residences.
(DOCX)
S2 Table. English version of the questionnaire.
(DOCX)
S3 Table. German version of the questionnaire.
(DOCX)
S4 Table. Correlations with confidence intervals.
(DOCX)
Acknowledgments
We thank all employees in supermarkets who are working under enormous pressure at the
moment for their valuable work. We thank Sabine Ertel for her inspiration to investigate toilet
paper hoarding and Florian Scharf for patiently responding to voice messages. Also, we thank
Valerio Capraro and an anonymous reviewer for fruitful comments and a rapid review pro-
cess. Finally, we thank all participants.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Data curation: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Formal analysis: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 10 / 12
Investigation: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Methodology: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Visualization: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Writing – original draft: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
Writing – review & editing: Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau, Theo Toppe.
References
1. Coronavirus [Internet]. [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/
novel-coronavirus-2019
2. Corona-Hamsterka
¨ufe: 700 Prozent mehr Umsatz wegen Klopapier [Internet]. [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Avail-
able from: https://www.rnd.de/wirtschaft/corona-hamsterkaufe-700-prozent-mehr-umsatz-wegen-
klopapier-KOFBY7XPC4Z57ZXZ3WELX4A24E.html
3. Jones L. What’s behind the great toilet roll grab? BBC News [Internet]. 2020 Mar 26 [cited 2020 Apr 4];
Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52040532
4. Corona-Krise: Experimentelle Daten zeigen Kaufverhalten im Einzelhandel [Internet]. Statistisches
Bundesamt. [cited 2020 May 13]. Available from: https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/
Pressemitteilungen/2020/03/PD20_112_61.html
5. Trump tells people to stop panic buying: “Relax. We’re doing great” [Internet]. The Independent. 2020
[cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-
coronavirus-press-conference-today-panic-buying-shortage-supplies-a9403496.html
6. SPIEGEL CS DER. Gefahr von Verstopfungen im Abwassersystem—Droht jetzt die Klopapierkrise
2.0?—DER SPIEGEL—Wissenschaft [Internet]. [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.
spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/coronakrise-droht-jetzt-die-klopapierkrise-2-0-a-452054a5-7511-
44b2-a2a3-62eede95f9e3
7. Writer RKB. Want To Know Why People Stockpile Toilet Paper? I’m A Hoarder And I Have A Few
Ideas. [Internet]. HuffPost. 400AD [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/
coronavirus-toilet-paper-hoarding_n_5e7a2320c5b62f90bc51e1db
8. Alford H. What Would Freud Make of the Toilet-Paper Panic? [Internet]. The New Yorker. [cited 2020
Apr 8]. Available from: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/03/30/what-would-freud-make-of-
the-toilet-paper-panic
9. Murphy K. Opinion | Stop Using Toilet Paper. The New York Times [Internet]. 2020 Apr 3 [cited 2020
Apr 8]; Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opinion/toilet-paper-hoarding-bidets.html
10. Chadwick J. Pandemic psychologist explains why people panic-buy toilet roll [Internet]. Mail Online.
2020 [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8160043/
Pandemic-psychologist-explains-people-panic-buy-toilet-roll.html
11. Ellson A. Coronavirus: Pandemic psychologist explains lavatory roll panic. [cited2020 Apr 4]; Available
from: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-pandemic-psychologist-explains-lavatory-roll-
panic-tjddffqbd
12. Timsit A. The psychology of coronavirus fear—and how to manage it [Internet]. Quartz. [cited 2020 Apr
8]. Available from: https://qz.com/1812664/the-psychology-of-coronavirus-fear-and-how-to-overcome-
it/
13. Bavel JJV, Baicker K, Boggio PS, Capraro V, Cichocka A, Cikara M, et al. Using social and behavioural
science to support COVID-19 pandemic response. Nat Hum Behav. 2020 Apr 30;1–12. https://doi.org/
10.1038/s41562-020-0818-9
14. Ashton MC, Lee K, Vries RE de. The HEXACO Honesty-Humility, Agreeableness, and Emotionality
Factors: A Review of Research and Theory. Personal Soc Psychol Rev [Internet]. 2014 Feb 26 [cited
2020 Apr 8]; Available from: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1088868314523838
15. Thielmann I, Spadaro G, Balliet D. Personality and prosocial behavior: A theoretical framework and
meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2020; 146(1):30–90.
16. anal personality–APA Dictionary of Psychology [Internet]. [cited 2020 Apr 8]. Available from: https://
dictionary.apa.org/anal-personality
17. Wood KA. A Psychoanalysis of Toilet Paper. Freudian Wisdom in the Corona-pocalypse [Internet].
Medium. 2020 [cited 2020 Apr 8]. Available from: https://medium.com/@kristiewood/a-psychoanalysis-
of-toilet-paper-freudian-wisdom-in-the-corona-pocalypse-e664f2c2e3c6
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 11 / 12
18. Lee K, Ashton MC. The HEXACO Personality Factors in the Indigenous Personality Lexicons of English
and 11 Other Languages. J Pers. 2008 Oct 1; 76(5):1001–54. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.
2008.00512.x PMID: 18665898
19. Columbus S. Who Hoards? Honesty-Humility and Behavioural Responses to the 2019/20 Coronavirus
Pandemic. 2020; Available from: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8e62v
20. Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) [Internet]. [cited 2020 Apr 4]. Available from: https://www.arcgis.
com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
21. de Vries RE. The 24-item Brief HEXACO Inventory (BHI). J Res Personal. 2013 Dec 1; 47(6):871–80.
22. Kroh M. Measuring Left–Right Political Orientation: The Choice of Response Format. Public Opin Q.
2007 Jan 1; 71(2):204–20.
23. Arslan RC, Tata CS, Walther MP. formr: A study framework allowing for automated feedback genera-
tion and complex longitudinal experience sampling studies using R. (version v0.18.3). 2018; Available
from: https://zenodo.org/record/3229668
24. R Core Team. R: A Language and Environment for Statistical Computing [Internet]. Vienna, Austria: R
Foundation for Statistical Computing; 2018. Available from: https://www.R-project.org/
25. Rosseel Y. lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling (Version 0.6–5). J Stat Softw. 2012
May 24; 48(1):1–36.
26. Jones SC, Waters L, Holland O, Bevins J, Iverson D. Developing pandemic communication strategies:
Preparation without panic. J Bus Res. 2010 Feb 1; 63(2):126–32.
27. Timsit A. Advice from a crisis management expert on how to defuse coronavirus panic [Internet].
Quartz. [cited 2020 Apr 8]. Available from: https://qz.com/1817427/a-crisis-management-expert-on-
how-to-defuse-coronavirus-panic/
28. Virus isolation for over-70s “within weeks.” BBC News [Internet]. 2020 Mar 15 [cited 2020 Apr 4]; Avail-
able from: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51895873
29. Carver CS, Scheier MF, Segerstrom SC. Optimism. Clin Psychol Rev. 2010 Nov; 30(7):879–89. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.006 PMID: 20170998
30. Hewitt PL, Flett GL. Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and
association with psychopathology. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1991; 60(3):456–70. https://doi.org/10.1037//
0022-3514.60.3.456 PMID: 2027080
31. Paulhus DL, Williams KM. The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopa-
thy. J Res Personal. 2002 Dec 1; 36(6):556–63.
PLOS ONE
Perceived threat of Covid-19 and toilet paper stockpiling
PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234232 June 12, 2020 12 / 12
