Scarcity (social psychology)

[2] These perceptions of scarcity can lead to irregular consumer behavior, such as systemic errors or cognitive bias.

Although people usually think of scarcity in a physical manner, the 'product' in short supply can also be abstract ideas such as time or energy.

[citation needed] This idea is deeply embedded in the intensely popular "Black Friday" shopping extravaganza that many United States consumers participate in every year on the day after Thanksgiving.

[5] Another example of the effects of scarcity is the phenomenon of panic buying, which drives people to display hoarding behaviors when faced with the possibility of going without a certain product.

Due to the pandemic, people panic bought toilet paper out of fear of limited product supply, creating a shortage.

Scarcity of time can be a less-visible and highly pervasive psychological phenomenon that can affect everyday decisions.

People who constantly feel pressed for time report higher levels of stress when making everyday decisions and less satisfaction with life overall.

[6] Researchers have found that when consumers are faced with perceived scarcity, they may become overwhelmed by the fear of needing an item and not having it.

[4] According to Robert Cialdini, the scarcity heuristic leads us to make biased decisions on a daily basis.

The simplest manifestation of the scarcity heuristic is the fear of losing access to some resource resulting from the possession of a small or diminishing quantity of the asset.

[14] This is in line with psychological reactance theory, which states that a person will react strongly when they perceive that their options are likely to be lessened in the future.

Advertisers commonly take advantage of scarcity heuristics by marketing products as “hot items” or by telling customers that certain goods will sell out quickly.

Demand for these dolls exceeded expectations, and spot shortages began to occur shortly after their introduction to the market.

This scarcity fueled demand even more and created what became known as the Cabbage Patch panic (Langway, Hughey, McAlevey, Wang, & Conant, 1983).

Even at these prices, the dolls were so difficult to obtain that one Kansas City postman flew to London to get one for his daughter (Adler et al., 1983).Scarcity is not only seen in humans.