The Neurobehavioral Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Consumer Cognition, Perception, Sentiment, Choice, and Decision-Making

Abstract

This article presents an empirical study carried out to evaluate and analyze consumer cognition, perception, sentiment, choice, and decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building our argument by drawing on data collected from Accenture, Harris Interactive, Kantar, KPMG, KuRunData, McKinsey, Toluna, and Worldpay/FIS, we performed analyses and made estimates regarding how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting where and how individuals get in supplies and consume as panic buying and stockpiling behaviors struggled against staples purchase ambivalence. Data collected from 9,400 respondents are tested against the research model. Descriptive statistics of compiled data from the completed surveys were calculated when appropriate.