Unraveled: The Psychology of Toilet Paper

And the Reversed Logic of Not Wearing Masks

From deserted streets to nearly-deserted stores. At least the ones that are allowed to be open. Indeed these are strange times.Stranger still is how my local grocery store has gone weeks without toilet paper. Pasta seems to have also disappeared, however, it is slowly returning. Around the globe, we see people purchasing copious amounts of  toilet paper. In some places people are fighting each other for it. What is it with people’s obsession with toilet paper during this time of crisis?

Stay Clean, Stay Safe. The Biology

Under pressure, humans exhibit strange behavior, uncovering how deeply powerful our psychological predispositions are. In times of crisis, our control over otherwise normal situations is restricted. When we feel exposed to an invisible enemy, such as a virus, we develop a stronger urge to control whatever we can. Scrambling to gain a sense of control, we attempt to prepare for inevitable situations. 

Toilet paper comes in handy in one of those inevitable situations. We use it in a very private setting, it is something we do alone, we do not want others around and we would not want to ask anybody for it if we ran out, not friends, not neighbors, and not strangers. If we ran out and had to ask others for toilet paper, we would have to give away the intimacy and privacy of when and how we need it. This part of our biology we want to keep to ourselves which is why we prepare by buying more than we need.

Selling out. The Economics

As days pass with empty shelves, the urge to acquire more toilet paper grows while supply keeps getting shorter. Running out of toilet paper is not an existential threat to our survival, however, seeing empty shelves creates enough uncertainty to make people stockpile toilet paper in an attempt to secure supply before others take all that is left.

Picture a lake. Several fishermen live off of the fish they regularly catch. Since all of them stick with a certain amount the fish recovers and remains at a healthy level. The moment one fisherman decides to take out more fish than usual though not only will there be less fish in the lake to repopulate, unfortunately the other fishermen will now start taking out more fish in an attempt to secure as much as they can while it lasts. This is particularly catastrophic for environmental resources such as fish, but the mechanics are similar to toilet paper. Economists refer to the effect as a common goods dilemma. 

Hide and Seek. The Psychology

Covid19, an invisible and unpredictable virus threatens us all. As humans, we despise  unpredictability, so we seek to understand, explain, and control all aspects of our lives. So far with this crisis, we are not able to do any of that effectively. We don’t know how this pandemic is going to unfold, how the global economy is going to recover or when things will go back to normal. We don’t really know how the virus functions, we have no vaccine, not even a treatment. And to protect ourselves from infection we only have a set of behavioral measures that seem quite vague and arbitrary such as social distancing. Either way, we are limited in how we predict, explain and control everything surrounding this pandemic. 

When humans experience fear, parts of our cognitive system starts acting differently. Partly because it helps us survive by making us more careful and partly because it saves energy and capacity by shifting our focus and attention away from irrelevant stimuli. Psychologists refer to this as fluid compensation. This means that a fear about a specific thing turns into fear about different more and more unrelated things. While we feel threatened to get infected with a potentially deadly virus we start showing fear of running out of toilet paper. Basically, anything that has to do with our future. From our health, to money, to nutrition. 

This pandemic has also reminded us of our mortality. In psychological research, this is called terror management. The pandemic sends us subtle reminders of our impending death. When these reminders surface our response is to gravitate towards groups that affirm our religious and political beliefs and these beliefs grow stronger than they usually would be. 

When reminded of their death, athletes show higher performance and generally we develop a greater wish to leave something meaningful behind through measures such as having children, writing books or less grand, posting on social media. Thus, we have to expect a lot of new books and pregnancies by the end of this year. 

With these psychological triggers guided by the pandemic, we find solace in an overabundance of toilet paper. We seek to  gain some type of control over the unpredictable. All the while, reading as much as we can to help us give meaning to our situation. 

Behind it all. Fear.

Fear is a powerful driver of human behavior. It triggers our response to stress into overdrive. A virus in its own right, fear spreads from person to person increasing the likelihood for the next person to get infected with fear.

Fear pushes our need for information. While we crave information because we want predictability, watching the news for hours every day is like hanging out with a super agent of the virus all day long. Not only is it infectious, it in fact makes us weaker and less resilient.

Masking. In your face.

The logic is reversed when looking at why people choose to wear masks in public.While toilet paper is about an intimate moment, masks are in your face. By wearing a mask you are protecting those around us. Since masks are not directly about our own protection, the urge to wear them is much lower than the urge to buy toilet paper.

• While toilet paper is about a very intimate and private moment, masks are being worn in public places. They are highly visible and at this point most people understand that their purpose is more about protecting others rather than ourselves. If all of us wore masks we would also protect each of us better than without. But since masks are not directly about our own protection the urge to wear them is much lower than the urge to buy more toilet paper. 
• The fewer people wear masks the less likely it is that more people will start wearing masks. Every time we see someone without a mask we feel it a little more justified to not wear one ourselves. Just like the fisher who takes the last fish out of the lake feels it is ok to do so because the others did the same. The more people rush to the store to buy toilet paper, the more justified it becomes to do the same.
• And finally, the psychology of the masks is the most underrated part of the public debate surrounding them. Masks are the ultimate reminder to increase your awareness and be careful. The masks are subtle reminders of us not being safe yet. In this respect they serve as a constant reminder to be alert. 

And ultimately, this is the best we can do now: stay calm and not let fear overwhelm us but at the same time stay alert and careful because the threat is still very much around us and as so often the biggest threat to our health in this moment is our own behavior, triggered by all the different factors underlying our complex and irrational reasoning and decision making. 

/// By Christoph Burkhardt.  I'm a Psychologist & Behavioral Economist by training. As the CEO of OneLife, a company dedicated to improving human health indoors, I try to add my understanding to the mix of knowledge about what makes people live healthier lives. www.onelife.eco