# Professor Adam Alter is quoted in a story examining why people engage in "panic buying" in the face of crises

1 Faculty News March 19, 2020 ![The Cut logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/the-cut-logo-feature.jpg?itok=Sb35WUpa)>

Excerpt from [The Cut](https://www.thecut.com/2020/03/coronavirus-toilet-paper-shortage-bidets.html) -- "They’re likely responding to images of empty shelves and stocked carts that proliferated on social media and in the news last week, inciting a snowball effect, explains [Adam Alter](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/adam-alter), an associate professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business. 'A few early hoarders drive the rest of the population to hoard by signaling that the product is in short supply.'”

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