Thursday April 30 | Who are those people hoarding toilet paper?

Stop hoarding and keep your social distance! That’s what we have been told over and over since the corona measures were announced. Yet the first couple of weeks, supermarkets were plundered nonetheless. But since the government put a fine on group gatherings, most people seem to take the social distance-rule seriously. Even during Kingsday we remained in the ranks.

So did we adopt new moral values and become leaders by example overnight? Were we total egocentric morons to start off with, and was a worldwide crisis necessary to make us good people?

‘Surprisingly, people who uphold moral values like prudency or charity can just as well be the ones that hoard and ignore social distance,’ says TPM researcher Caspar Chorus in this short video. He researches choice behavior, for example of people and how they act when facing a crisis like we do today. ‘There is little to no correlation between the moral values people uphold and their moral behavior.’

So that person hoarding could just as well be you. Sounds depressing? Hold on, we’re not entirely lost. Watch the video below.

Studium Generale created a Corona Care Package to make #StayingIn as pleasant as possible. In the following weeks we will share videos, blogs, articles and podcasts within four focus areas: Mental Health, The World After Corona, Arts & Culture and other online events.