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Matthew Ryan, Postdoctoral CERC Fellow, CSIRO

What toilet paper and game shows can teach us about the spread of epidemics

Su San Lee / Unsplash

How can we explain and predict human behaviour? Are mathematics and probability up to the task, or are humans too complex and irrational?

Often, people’s actions take us by surprise, particularly when they seem irrational. Take the COVID pandemic: one thing nobody saw coming was a rush on toilet paper that left supermarket shelves bare in many countries.

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