Who is affected by FoMO (Fear of Missing Out)?

– Measuring a new phenomenon in the digital era –

C. Bosau & L. Aelker

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Quelle: http://www.ithinkonpaper.com/fomo/

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Quelle: http://healthmeup.com/photogallery-healthy-living/could-you-be-suffering-from-fear-of-missing-out-fomo/32443/3

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Quelle: http://www.examiner.com/article/checking-facebook-and-twitter-all-day-scientists-say-you-may-have-fomo

Quelle: http://www.buzzly.fr/jq/ckeditor/plugins/doksoft_uploader/userfiles/phubbing2.jpg

Quelle: http://www.buzzly.fr/jq/ckeditor/plugins/doksoft_uploader/userfiles/phubbing.jpeg

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Quelle: https://www.thieme.de/viamedici/mein-studienort-graz-1588/a/modulsystem-meduni-graz-19459.htm

Quelle: http://www.lto.de/recht/studium-referendariat/s/umfrage-bildungsministerium-jura-studenten-pruefungsangst/

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Quelle: http://de.engadget.com/2010/10/08/bruderle-sei-dank-ipad-im-bundestag-jetzt-erlaubt/

Quelle: http://www.abendblatt.de/politik/article2169582/Babette-loest-Email-Chaos-im-Bundestag-aus.html

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

A new phenomenon?

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Quelle: http://www.jwtintelligence.com Quelle: http://www.jwtintelligence.com

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Quelle: http://www.jwtintelligence.com

Very lately, this new phenomenon is being discussed (JWT, 2011 & 2012; Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell, 2013): Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) „the uneasy and sometimes all- consuming feeling that you’re missing out — that your peers are doing, in the know about or in possession of more or something better than you. FoMO may be a social angst that’s always existed, but it’s going into overdrive thanks to real-time digital updates and to our constant companion, the smartphone.” (JWT, 2011, p. 5)

A new phenomenon?

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell (2013):

•  created „... items meant to reflect the fears, worries, and anxieties people may have in relation to being in (or out of) touch with the events, experiences, and conversations happening across their extended social circles.” (p. 1842)

•  started with 32 items, an interative process of several confirmative factor analyses lead to a one factor solution with 25 final items (χ2 (275) = 1778.1, p < .01, RMSEA = .073, SRMR = .056).

•  IRT-based analyses resulted in 10 final items: •  I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me. •  I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me. •  I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me. •  I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to.

•  It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’.

•  Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

•  It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends. •  When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

•  When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).

•  When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

The only measurement instrument

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan & Gladwell (2013): Ø  FoMO increases social media engagement (r = .40, p < . 001), is negatively associated

with general mood (r = -.24, p <.001) as well as overall life satisfaction (r = -.19, p < . 001)

Results from former studies

Bosau, Aelker & Amaadachou (2014): Ø  FoMO leads to facebook addiction (β = .45, p < . 01)

Bosau & Müller (2015): Ø  FoMO increases facebook engagement (r = .39, p < . 01) and by that leads indirectly to

lower study results (facebook à study results: r = -.23, p < .05)

Bosau & Kühn (2015): Ø  FoMO is a very strong predictor of problematic mobile phone use and leads to habitual

checking behaviour (when being alone: β = .72, p < . 01 – when being in company: β = .36, p < . 01 )

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Sample: Ø  N = 100

Ø  Male = 36%, Female = 64%

Ø  Age: from 18 to 57, mean = 29,2, SD = 7,8

Ø  34% university degree, 44% “Abitur”, 22% lower than “Abitur”

This study

Samling strategy: Ø  Recruited via Facebook (in December 2014)

Ø  374 klicks, 193 questionnaires started, 100 complete questionnaires

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

CFA – Results – 10 items

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Chi-Square (35) = 153.8, p < .01; CFI = .554 ; RMSEA = .184 ; SRMR = .124

FoMO  

2  

3  

4  

5  

6  

7  

8  

9  

10  

1  

.87

.60

.45

.44

.42

.32

.12

.07

.31

.88 1.  I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me.

2.  I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me.

3.  I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me.

4.  I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to.

5.  It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’.

6.  Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

7.  It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends.

8.  When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

9.  When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).

10. When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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•  I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me. •  I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me. •  I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me. •  I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to.

•  It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’.

•  Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

•  It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends. •  When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

•  When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).

•  When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Validity problems?

emo2onal  /  fear  

behavioural  (“ac2ve”)  

behavioural  (“passive”)  

???  

behavioural  

emo2onal  /  mee2ng  

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

CFA – Results – 8 items

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Chi-Square (20) = 82.2, p < .01; CFI = .690 ; RMSEA = .183 ; SRMR = .119

FoMO  

2  

3  

4  

5  

6  

7  

10  

1  

.88

.59

.43

.43

.41

.31

.30

.88 1.  I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me.

2.  I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me.

3.  I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me.

4.  I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to.

5.  It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’.

6.  Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

7.  It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends.

8.  When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

9.  When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).

10. When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Model before: Chi-Square (35) = 153.8, p < .01; CFI = .554 ; RMSEA = .184 ; SRMR = .124

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

CFA – Results – 4 items

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Chi-Square (2) = 19.3, p < .01; CFI = .863 ; RMSEA = .294 ; SRMR = .080

FoMO  

2  

3  

4  

1  

.88

.59

.43

.88 1.  I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me.

2.  I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me.

3.  I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me.

4.  I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to.

5.  It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’.

6.  Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

7.  It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends.

8.  When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

9.  When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status).

10. When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Model before: Chi-Square (20) = 82.2, p < .01; CFI = .690 ; RMSEA = .183 ; SRMR = .119

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

Exploratory FA – Results – 10 items

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Principal-Component-Analysis with Promax rotation; 62,2% explained variance, factor extraction by eigenvalue

Components

1 2 3

1. I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me. .96

2. I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me. .96

3. I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me. .58

9. When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status). .85

10. When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing. .60

4. I get anxious when I don’t know what my friends are up to. .56

6. Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on. .51

5. It is important that I understand my friends ‘‘in jokes’’. .45

8. When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me. .97

7. It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends. .72

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

CFA - Summaries

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Removing the items, that do not address the construct perfectly, lead to better fit indices

Goodness of Fit Indices (all robust MLR estimators)

Chi-Square df p CFI TLI AIC RMSEA SRMR

FoMO – 10 items 153.8 35 < .00 .55 .43 2903.1 .18 .12

FoMO – 8 items 87.1 20 < .00 .69 .57 2328.6 .18 .12

FoMO – 4 items 19.3 2 < .00 .86 .59 1113.7 .29 .08

FoMO – 3 items Not able to estimate, perfectly identified model (df = 0)

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

Convergent & Divergent Validity

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Big-5 personality inventory – short scale –

(Rammstedt, Kemper, Klein, Beierlein, & Kovaleva, 2012)

self-esteem (Collani & Herzberg, 2003)

affiliative tendency & sensitivity to rejection

(Mehrabian & Ksionzkys, 1974)

Scales:

self-monitoring - Other-Directedness, Acting,

Sensitivity, Extraversion - (Collani & Stürmer, 2014)

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Correlations

FoMO – 10 (Alpha = .79)

FoMO- 8 (Alpha = .81)

FoMO – 4 (Alpha = .79)

FoMO – 3 (Alpha = .81)

Extraversion -.30*** -.33*** -.33*** -.33***

Conscientiousness -.09 -.09 -.08 -.08

Neuroticism .36*** .37*** .42*** .41***

Openness -.01 -.00 -.00 -.03

Agreeableness .04 .05 -.01 .00

Self-esteem -.41*** -.46*** -.48*** -.45***

Self-monitoring – Other-directedness .46*** .45*** .44*** .41***

Self-monitoring – Acting .21** .21** .19* .22**

Self-monitoring – Sensitivity .04 .04 .02 .02

Self-monitoring - extraversion -.53*** -.56*** -.57*** -.55***

Self-monitoring – total .11 .10 .06 .08

Affiliative tendency .13 .10 .02 .04

Sensitivity to rejection .47*** .49*** .49*** .49***

Convergent & Divergent Validity

*** p < .01, ** p < .05, * p < .10

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Correlations

FoMO – 10 (Alpha = .79)

FoMO- 8 (Alpha = .81)

FoMO – 4 (Alpha = .79)

Extraversion -.30*** -.33*** -.33*** increase

Conscientiousness -.09 -.09 -.08

Neuroticism .36*** .37*** .42*** increase

Openness -.01 -.00 -.00

Agreeableness .04 .05 -.01

Self-esteem -.41*** -.46*** -.48*** increase

Self-monitoring – Other-directedness .46*** .45*** .44*** decline

Self-monitoring – Acting .21** .21** .19* decline

Self-monitoring – Sensitivity .04 .04 .02

Self-monitoring - extraversion -.53*** -.56*** -.57*** increase

Self-monitoring – total .11 .10 .06

Affiliative tendency .13 .10 .02

Sensitivity to rejection .47*** .49*** .49*** increase

Convergent & Divergent Validity

*** p < .01, ** p < .05, * p < .10

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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Ø  The original FoMO-scale by Przybylski et al. has several flaws, since it addresses and mixes several aspects:

Ø  Emotional ratings (even regarding several different aspects) Ø  Behavioural ratings (even more “active” vs. “passive” behaviour) Ø  Other ratings

Ø  Removing the items, that do not address the construct perfectly, lead to better fit indices.

Ø  Based on the Przybylski et al. items: a 4-item-solution shows the best fit

Ø  Convergent and divergent validity indices improve likewise with the 4 item-solution.

Conclusion

Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is an interesting construct that could possibly explain a lot in online & social network research. However, we need better scales that define and measure the construct more precisely.

ECPA 2015 Bosau & Aelker: Who is affected by FoMO?

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•  Bosau C., Aelker, L. & Amaadachou, H. (2014). Ich darf nichts verpassen! – Kann “Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)” Suchtverhalten in Facebook erklären? 49. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Psychologie in Bochum.

•  Bosau C., Kühn, M. (2015). Phubbing because of FoMO? – Fear of Missing Out as a predictor for problematic mobile phone use. 17th General Online Research Conference in Cologne.

•  Bosau C., Müller, P. (2015). FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) beeinträchtig Studienerfolg. Warum man in einer Lehrveranstaltung sein Smartphone lieber ausschalten sollte. 19. Fachtagung der Gesellschaft für angewandte Wirtschaftspsychologie (GWPs) in Heide.

•  Collani, G., von, & Stürmer, S. (2014). Deutsche Skala zur Operationalisierung des Konstrukts Selbstüberwachung (Self-Monitoring) und seiner Facetten. In D. Danner & A. Glöckner-Rist (Eds.), Zusammenstellung sozialwissenschaftlicher Items und Skalen. doi: 10.6102/zis50

•  Collani, G., von, & Herzberg, P.Y. (2003). Eine revidierte Fassung der deutschsprachigen Skala zum Selbstwertgefühl von Rosenberg. Zeitschrift für Differentielle und Diagnostische Psychologie, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 3-7.

•  JWT (2011). Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), May 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.jwtintelligence.com/production/FOMO_JWT_TrendReport_May2011.pdf [01.09.2012].

•  JWT (2012). Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), March 2012. Retrieved from: http://www.jwtintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/F _JWT_FOMO- update_3.21.12.pdf [01.09.2012].

•  Mehrabian, A. & Ksionzky, S. (1974): A theory of affiliation. Lexington, MA, USA: Heath.

•  Przybylski, A.K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C.R. & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioural correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, Vol. 29, pp. 1841-1848.

•  Rammstedt, B., J. Kemper, B.C., Klein, M.C., Beierlein, C. & Kovaleva, A. (2012). Eine kurze Skala zur Messung der fünf Dimensionen der Persönlichkeit: Big-Five-Inventory-10 (BFI-10). GESIS-Working Papers 2012|22

Literature

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Thanks for your attention

Contact details:

Rheinische Fachhochschule Köln Prof. Dr. Christian Bosau, Dipl.-Psych. & Master of HRM & IR Schaevenstraße 1a/b 50676 Cologne / Germany Tel.: +49 221 20302-0 e-mail: christian.bosau@rfh-koeln.de Slideshare: cbosau Twitter: cribocologne