{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T05:03:54Z","timestamp":1789707834502,"version":"4.0.1"},"reference-count":15,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789689600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1893778","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T04:32:30Z","timestamp":1789705950000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Panic buying in response to tariffs: a psychodynamic and psychoanalytic hypothesis for economic uncertainty"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Marty","family":"Cooper","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"State University of New York Old Westbury","place":["Old Westbury, NY, United States"]},{"name":"New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis","place":["New York, NY, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"666715","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2021.666715","article-title":"Understanding panic buying through an integrated psychodynamic lens","volume":"9","author":"Cooper","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"603894","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2020.603894","article-title":"Responsible factors of panic buying: an observation from online media reports","volume":"8","author":"Arafat","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3513","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph17103513","article-title":"The psychological causes of panic buying following a health crisis","volume":"17","author":"Yuen","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int J Environ Res Public Health"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e04746","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2020.e04746","article-title":"Development and initial psychometric properties of a panic buying scale during COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"6","author":"Lins","year":"2020","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"487","DOI":"10.3982\/QE2255","article-title":"A dynamic model of rational \u201cpanic buying.\u201d","volume":"15","author":"Noda","year":"2024","journal-title":"Quant Econ"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3","DOI":"10.1177\/02807270241239666","article-title":"Where is the panic in \u201cpanic buying\u201d? Consumer purchases at the outset of the COVID pandemic","volume":"42","author":"Lindell","year":"2024","journal-title":"J Consum Psychol"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"17","DOI":"10.5844\/ijmd.5.2_17","article-title":"Consumer panic buying: understanding the behavioral and psychological aspects","volume":"5","author":"Inoue","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int J Mark Distr"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"263","DOI":"10.2307\/1914185","article-title":"Prospect theory: an analysis of decision under risk","volume":"47","author":"Kahneman","year":"1979","journal-title":"Econometrica"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"222","DOI":"10.3390\/bs14030222","article-title":"Review on panic buying behavior during pandemics: influencing factors, stockpiling, and intervention strategies","volume":"14","author":"Jazemi","year":"2024","journal-title":"Behav Sci"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"617166","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2020.617166","article-title":"The impact of COVID-19 and public health emergencies on consumer purchase of scarce products in China","volume":"8","author":"Jin","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"625664","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2020.625664","article-title":"Different correlates of COVID-19-related adherent and dysfunctional safety behavior","volume":"8","author":"Weism\u00fcller","year":"2021","journal-title":"Front Public Health"},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1200","DOI":"10.1057\/s41599-024-03725-8","article-title":"The government intervention effects on panic buying behavior based on online comment data mining: a case study of COVID-19 in Hubei Province, China","volume":"11","author":"Chen","year":"2024","journal-title":"Humanit Soc Sci Commun"},{"key":"ref13","volume-title":"Beyond the Pleasure Principle","author":"Freud","year":"1920"},{"key":"ref14","first-page":"89","article-title":"Transitional objects and transitional phenomena: a study of the first not-me possession","volume":"34","author":"Winnicott","year":"1953","journal-title":"Int J Psychoanal"},{"key":"ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.55529\/jpps.44.37.44","article-title":"The psychology of consumer behavior during economic recessions and its impact on political attitudes","volume":"4","author":"Ramesh","year":"2024","journal-title":"J Psychol Polit Sci"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Public Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1893778\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]],"date-time":"2026-09-18T04:32:40Z","timestamp":1789705960000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1893778\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"references-count":15,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1893778"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1893778","relation":{},"ISSN":["2296-2565"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2296-2565","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,18]]},"article-number":"1893778"}}