‘Fear of missing out’: antecedents and influence on purchase likelihood

ABSTRACT

‘Fear of missing out’ (FOMO) is a recent but widely recognized phenomenon. Some emotional antecedents of FOMO, such as anticipated elation and anticipated envy from other people, can boost FOMO. Other emotional antecedents, such as comforting rationalizations, can decrease FOMO. Because FOMO can influence consumers’ experience-related attitudes and behaviors meaningfully, it behooves marketing scholars and practitioners to understand FOMO and the potential of FOMO-laden appeals to increase sales. Although social scientists generally treat FOMO as a personality trait, FOMO-laden appeals that extol the future experiences of close friends or family members can induce a FOMO spike.

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted without external funding.