The Behavioral Economics of Toilet Paper: Session 113 with Derek Reed

Dr. Derek Reed joins me today to discuss the behavioral economic principles that underpin so much of what we're seeing today as the world attempts to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic. From buying all the toilet paper in sight, to heeding (or more to the point, not heeding) government guidelines for social distancing, Derek relates these behavioral patterns to some very basic operant principles.

We start the show with a quick overview of three key behavioral economic terms: Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, and Behavioral Economic Demand. We then talk about how these processes can be used to interpret some of the fascinating societal behavior that we're seeing all around us, including, of course, the panic-buying of toilet paper.

Derek then goes on to describe some of the research that he has done in this area, and suggests some lines of future research. We also discuss some the shortcomings of traditional ABA research designs in studying these phenomena, along with what we can do to overcome these barriers.

Derek brought up several references. Here are the links:

• Derek's first appearance on the BOP in Session 17.
• The "pop" behavioral economic concept of the Zero Risk Bias.
• Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968).
• Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1987).
• Critchfield and Reed (2017).
• Reed, et al. (2013). Behavioral Economics: A Tutorial for Behavior Analysts in Practice.
• The Max/Mel Brooks PSA on Social Distancing (YouTube vid).

Today's episode is sponsored by:

• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.
• The Verbal Behavior Conference will be going down in Austin Texas. This event will feature speakers such as David Palmer, Barbara Esch, Pat McGreevy, Mark Sundberg, and more! They’ve even asked me to moderate a panel at the end of the first day, so if this sounds like fun to you, go to ctac1.com/podcast, where you can register at a discounted rate.