Panic buying in response to tariffs: a psychodynamic and psychoanalytic hypothesis for economic uncertainty

Panic buying, the sudden, affectively driven surge in purchasing essential goods in excess of rational need, has been widely documented during health crises but remains underexplored as a response to economic policies such as tariffs. Critically, panic buying must be distinguished from rational stockpiling: while anticipatory purchasing in response to tariff-induced price increases may reflect sound intertemporal decision-making, panic buying is characterized by purchases exceeding individually optimal levels and driven by negative affect, perceived scarcity, and social contagion rather than objective risk assessment alone. This article extends the integrated psychodynamic model of panic buying developed by Cooper and Gordon (1) to address tariff-induced consumer behavior, clarifying its psychological underpinnings and broader significance. The article examines how well-established frameworks from behavioral economics, including Prospect Theory, scarcity heuristics, and affect-based models, account for much of the surface phenomenology of tariff-induced panic buying, while arguing that psychodynamic mechanisms explain a clinically significant residual: namely, why a subset of individuals exhibits panic buying that is disproportionate to objective threat, resistant to rational persuasion, and recurrent across successive economic crises. The article introduces three core psychodynamic mechanisms operating across a five-phase model: (1) developmental vulnerability rooted in economic trauma; (2) threat activation involving projection and splitting; and (3) behavioral enactment via displacement and transitional object dynamics. Each mechanism is distinguished conceptually, linked to specific phases of the model, and operationalized with proposed measurement strategies. By providing a clinically actionable framework that complements existing behavioral and economic accounts, the analysis contributes to both therapeutic practice and public policy during periods of economic uncertainty.