The veteran underwriter has suggested that the hoarder class
cut-off be set at 60 rolls.
Life and health insurers should consider gathering data on
insurance applicants who stockpiled toilet paper in response to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Hank George, a longtime National Underwriter Life & Health
underwriting columnist, has made that suggestion in a new commentary.
He recommended that insurers ask whether applicants have
accumulated 60 or more rolls of toilet paper by ordinary purchase, or 60 or
more rolls “by whatever means necessary.”
Resources
George proposed that the list of answer options could also
include “None: I never use the stuff” and “Other.”
George drafted the toilet paper aggregation experience question
in response to a research paper written by Lisa Garbe, Richard Rau and
Theo Toppe, “Influence of Perceived Threat of COVID-19 and HEXACO Personality
Traits on Toilet Paper Stockpiling.”
Research Methods
Garbe, who is a political science specialist at the University
of St. Gallen in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and her colleagues, who are
affiliated with universities in Germany, based their paper on results from an
online survey that received responses from 996 consumers in 22 countries.
The researchers broke participants down into toilet paper
accumulation categories by asking whether they had no rolls; 1 to 4 rolls; 5 to
8 rolls; 9 to 12 rolls; 13 to 16 rolls; 17 to 20 rolls; or 21 or more rolls.
The researchers tried to adjust toilet paper stockpiling data
for factors such as a participant’s age, household size, and quarantine or
isolation expectations.
Older participants who are not normally hoarders might have
accumulated more rolls of toilet paper because they expected to be locked in
their homes longer, the searchers wrote in their paper, which was published in
June.
The researchers noted that national toilet paper packaging
characteristics also affected the numbers.
“Americans stockpiled more toilet paper in their household and
went toilet paper shopping less frequently as compared to Europeans,” the
researchers wrote. “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).”
Results
The researchers found that survey participants who took the
COVID-19 threat more seriously were more likely to stockpile toilet paper.
Participants who are more emotional than others were also more
likely to stockpile toilet paper.
Being especially conscientious was a third factor that led to
increased 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),” the researchers wrote.
The researchers said they believe their results have
implications for policymakers who are involved with managing the response to a
pandemic.
“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,” the
researchers wrote. “This is also in line with the finding that fear can
potentially be useful if people ‘feel capable of dealing with the threat.’ If
fear is driven by strong emotions, however, people may ignore factual
information and engage in irrational behavior.”
The Underwriter’s Reaction
George did not speculate about whether increased toilet paper
stockpiling could correlate with anxiety, depression, or private knowledge
about digestive tract symptoms that could be early signs of COVID-19.
George did express the view that “near hysterical sequestration”
of toilet paper is infuriating and should be ferreted out.
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