Understanding Individuals' Behavior Under Uncertainty

Abstract

An economic crisis is an uncertain situation with negative economic evolutions like unemployment, inflation rate increase, freezing or decreasing of the wages, purchasing power decrease, etc. All of these represent economic shocks. The individual well-being is determined by many things like level, secure income, job stability, health, social relationships, and economic household security. In order to understand How and Why people behave in certain patterns in such an uncertain situation, a comprehensive analysis of situational consequences should be considered. All of these dimensions of analysis are correlated in some way and explain the consumers' behavior alteration during turbulent times. History's crises showed surviving companies were those characterized by high-speed reaction, strategic flexibility and a very good understanding of market mood. Thus, this chapter explains the consumer's behavior change in recession conditions and the panic mechanism that shapes people reactions in such conditions.