McArdle writes:
‘BEHAVIOURAL psychologists will surely have a field day in future analysing how the British public responded to the threat from coronavirus by stockpiling toilet roll.To me, it bears all the hallmarks of the ‘Prisoners’ Dilemma’, a famous paradox used in game theory to illustrate why everything from society to international relations is often hobbled by human beings’ innate selfishness.’
Game Theory famously was the basis for the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction] strategy, in the Cold War and Henry Kissinger’s brutal Vietnam and Cambodia war crimes.
Back to Scotland. Everybody else is panic-buying the toilet rolls so I must too. We’re all selfish. That’s about all game theory has to tell us, or appears to, but back in the 50s, when psychologists actually tested game theory with human beings, they found that, often, they did things that were selfless, empathetic and in the interests of the wider population.
So, I was in a long queue yesterday, buying stuff to take round to a food bank. Nobody in the queue was using that as a justification for their greed but when I got to the food bank, I was not the only one who had done so. That night on Reporting Scotland, we heard quite old folk, I’d say, explaining that they’d bought two big packs of toilet rolls because they knew ‘old folk’ who couldn’t get out to buy them. Then I remembered the report of shop owners putting together bags with soap, hand gel and masks to hand out to elderly people around the Falkirk area.
Here’s a thing, do the empty shelves headlining on our screens and in our newspapers tell us as much about journalists innate negativity as they do about our ‘innate selfishness?’
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
It doesn’t take much to empty shop shelves , ten percent of shoppers can easily buy ten times what they normally buy
which leaves zero for everyone else
Staff going off work means many supermarkets are short of staff dome 24 hour shops actually closing their shop to get shelves filled.
Personally I’m not joining in.
Yesterday’s meal was fresh beetroot lots of it, tinned spaghetti , home made oven chips ,reed peppers stuffed with rice homemade and roasted with a couple of tomatoes , yes a bit odd but good enough then I put some rice milk sugar milk sultanas in a pot and that was great too.
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The framing of it as ‘panic’ implies a jaundiced view of why people are buying larger quantities than seems usual.
Last week-end, when it was becoming clearer that we were going to be recommended to social distance/self isolate and that people who were infected were to remain at home for 7 days, but, if there were others in the same household, the period was extended to 14 days. Looking at trolleys, it seemed to me that many people were gradually building up a supply to last around 14 days. I did not see the ‘groaning laden trolleys’ of media legend. I did see people depositing items after they had paid into bins collecting for food banks.
If Ms McArdle has, indeed, acknowledging that we are mostly not unashamedly and inconsiderately selfish and that most of us are compassionate, then, we should welcome that. However,I am not holding my breath in anticipation of the meejavolk joining hands with the rest of us and singing ‘Kumbaya’. I think the default is shock/horror misanthropy.
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