By Fred Hart, Valerie Hawks, and Maribeth Kradel-Weitzel
We live in a time of radical change as we cope with a pandemic that has affected how we live, work, play, sleep, and even, at times, breathe. The big changes are noticeableâshifts to working from home for non-essential workers, homeschooling, wearing masksâbut even subtle human behavior shifts can have lasting ramifications for many industries.
The way society engages with packaging during the pandemic has not been immune to this development. Wendy Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California, and author of Good Habits, Bad Habits states that âthe best evidence we have at this point is that it can take two to three months to form a simple habitâto make something so automated that you donât have to think about it, you just do it.â The pandemic has currently been impacting humanity on a global scale for several months. Now is the time to take stock of consumer behavior changes relevant to packaging that may move from temporary adaptations to permanent habits. We must consider how an examination of these themes can facilitate future predictions unrelated to the current crisis.
