How Covid-19 has changed people's decision-making

Abstract

2020 is the year in which many things changed. The priorities, certainties and habits that people were used to and took for granted for many years suddenly became a limited good. We can therefore predict that something in people’s minds might have changed during the last year. Considering these specific aspects, the following thesis will aim to understand how this pandemic has led to changes in people’s minds, in particular in the decision-making process that leads to certain choices in terms of purchases or everyday decision making. The study will start by considering general aspects of the pandemic, how and when it started, and how people initially reacted to this pandemic. Then I will analyze how generally people make decisions in uncertain times. I will not focus only on the COVID-19 pandemic but I will try to analyze the macro-area in which people by nature behave under pressure and in unsafe situations. Later, I will look more closely at the COVID-19 field by seeking to understand how consumer behavior has been affected by the uncertainties the COVID-19 crisis has caused. The effects of forced isolation and economic uncertainty are evident in all areas of life, from how people work and shop to how they spend their free time. Viewed together, these changes form five trends. In this part of the study, I will try to analyze in detail the trends that have emerged across the world. These trends are: shift to value, flight to digital, caring commerce, shock to loyalty and homebody economy. My research, then, will be based on a questionnaire in order to give voice to real people. This empiric research will be based on a series of questions that will not consider a single aim but rather, many themes in order to explore the differences in behavior of different types of people. The questionnaire will aim also to give respondents the possibility to give their opinion about this period, giving those people who have directly experienced this dramatic situation a platform to express themselves “in their own words”. People invited to complete this questionnaire are from all around the world and they will be absolutely free to say everything about the themes touched. These are: ways of spending time, ways of purchasing different types of goods, ways of moving, touching also on the concept of sustainability, and also any positive aspects of this period. In the chapter following the questionnaire, I will start to analyze the answers collected and try to formulate some hypotheses. These hypotheses can be very varied, and the conclusions, being based on what people say, can be surprising. To conclude, the fact that we should evaluate is that: generally, when we think about change, especially when talking about COVID-19, we think about something negative. But, what I expect from this study to show is that, despite the dramatic period we are experiencing, people have the instinct to get up and fight to improve their circumstances. So, if some things have changed compared to pre-COVID, they are not necessarily negative things. With this study I hope to be able to discover these aspects, attempting to reveal among the various decision-making changes, how people intend to react in order to meet the challenges they are facing in this difficult period.