Absorbing truth behind our loo roll compulsion

THE sudden mania for stockpiling toilet paper has prompted psychologists to search for answers as to why we have injected such a lowly commodity with such totemic significance in the fight against the virus.

Bog roll is only a more hygienic substitute for the handfuls of grass or rags or even newspapers used by our ancestors and we could, in a pinch, survive without it.

One school of thought has it that we keep a watchful eye on the groaning bales of loo roll in our local store because we subconsciously see them as a good luck charm, keeping us safe.

The theory is that as we become scared by the thought of catching coronavirus, our sensibility to disgust increases and we start hoarding hygiene products like disinfectant wipes and toilet paper.

They become ‘conditioned symbols of safety’ that alleviate our fear of getting the virus – the reverse of the thugs who are prowling the streets of late, looking for people to cough and spit over, with no fear of reprisal.

Another theory says our compulsive toilet paper purchasing is a sign of our still seeing Covid-19 as a threat to normality or our carefully constructed comfortable lifestyle rather than life itself.

This suggests that it may only be when we climb the dreaded curve of illness and death that the impotence of a family pack of Andrex for warding off illness and decay hits home and we begin to face head on the crisis that surrounds us.

Perhaps the proof of the pudding for that particular theory is the length of time it takes the exponential curve of toilet roll sales to come back to earth. There’s no sign of that yet.