I watched a video this week of a guy at a service station losing it at someone filling jerry cans in the back of their SUV.
“Are you kidding me? You’re so greedy.”
I felt my whole body agree with him.
I was also the person who refused to stockpile toilet paper during COVID. On principle.
(I regretted that principle around week three.)
Here’s what’s fascinating. The hoarder and the person raging at the hoarder? Their brains are running the same threat detection software.
When your brain detects scarcity, even the possibility of scarcity, it activates an evolutionary survival mechanism. Research shows hoarding behaviour is driven by the fear of being caught unprepared. Your brain shifts into future-oriented planning mode and starts acquiring resources to reduce uncertainty.
It’s not greed. It’s your brain doing exactly what it evolved to do: protect future you.
But here’s where it gets interesting.
The person behind them? Their brain is running a completely different programme on the same hardware. When we witness someone taking more than their fair share, the insula fires up. This is the same brain region involved in processing disgust, pain and social norm violations. Research shows the insula is causally involved in our aversion to inequity. Unfairness literally registers in your body before your conscious mind catches up.
So the hoarder’s brain is screaming “protect yourself.” And your brain is screaming “that’s not fair.” Both responses are automatic. Both feel completely justified. And neither person thinks they’re the problem.
Now think about your workplace.
When restructures get announced and people start hoarding information, protecting relationships, or stockpiling projects, that’s scarcity brain. When their colleagues watch it happen and feel that rising frustration? That’s inequity aversion.
Same meeting. Two threat responses. Zero awareness from either side.
The most useful thing a leader can do in moments of scarcity isn’t to judge either response. It’s to recognise both brains are doing exactly what they were designed to do, and name what’s actually happening.
“I can see resources feel uncertain right now. Let’s talk about what we actually know.”
One sentence. Two threat responses addressed.
What’s your go-to scarcity response, hoarder or rager? No judgement. Your brain made that choice long before you did.
