DAN Faculty in the News
Professor Bonnie Simpson was featured in the Western News on March 17, 2020 in an article titled: Panicked Consumers seek control amid the crisis.
Excerpt from the Western News:
Empty shelves once filled with rolls and rolls of toilet paper. It is one of the more enduring – and strange – images of the COVID-19 crisis in Canada.
But scenes like these are not uncommon in times of stress as they are all products of the often irrational consumer mind, according to a Western consumer behaviour expert.
“When it comes to items like toilet paper, this is generally because when we feel threatened we focus on core and immediate needs – very utility-based items,” said Bonnie Simpson, a DAN Department of Management and Organizational Studies professor. “We focus on tangible things we can use to try to gain control of a situation that feels out of control.
“Being able to buy things we might need helps us gain that sense of control.”
