The stockpiling behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as an example for situations where cooperation is inhibited by lack of trust, media exposure, and increased anxiety. In this paper, I test the hypothesis that stockpiling results from social psychological factors that prevent psychological groupness and cooperation (e.g., low trust in governments and other citizens, high frequency of news exposure, high pandemic anxiety), rather than being an inherently selfish and uncontrollable panic behavior. Specifically, I hypothesized that lower levels of satisfaction with the governments’ COVID-19 policies, lower trust in people in following physical distancing rules, and more frequent media exposure would predict higher stockpiling behaviors through increased pandemic-related anxiety. In a cross-sectional survey study conducted in Turkey and the UK during the first-wave of the pandemic (N = 5137), I tested a conceptual model via SEM. Findings showed that lower trust in people, lower satisfaction with governments’ COVID-19 policies, and high exposure to news predicted higher pandemic related anxiety which predicted higher stockpiling in both countries. I discussed that governments policies and media in both countries may be the reason for mass stockpiling behaviors by decreasing predictability and trust.

中文翻译：

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新兴心理群体的障碍预测大流行期间的储存：缺乏信任、媒体曝光和焦虑

COVID-19 大流行期间的囤积行为成为合作因缺乏信任、媒体曝光和焦虑增加而受到抑制的情况的一个例子。在本文中，我检验了一个假设，即囤积是由阻碍心理群体和合作的社会心理因素造成的（例如，对政府和其他公民的信任度低、新闻曝光频率高、对流行病的高度焦虑），而不是天生的自私和无法控制的恐慌行为。具体来说，我假设对政府的 COVID-19 政策的满意度较低、对人们遵守社交距离规则的信任度较低以及更频繁的媒体曝光将通过增加与大流行相关的焦虑来预测更高的储存行为。N = 5137），我通过 SEM 测试了一个概念模型。研究结果表明，对人的信任度较低、对政府的 COVID-19 政策的满意度较低以及对新闻的高曝光率预示着与大流行相关的焦虑程度较高，这预示着两国的库存增加。我讨论过，两国政府的政策和媒体可能是通过降低可预测性和信任度而导致大规模囤积行为的原因。