What are the findings of the study? What is the hypothesis ?
Transcribed Image Text: The current study was designed to measure EMO (Fear of Missing out)
in participants when they read that they will be the only ones not attending a social event while
all their friends can attend. Three conditions described which friends were going to the concert:
all, none, and some. In general, we predicted that if participants imagined they were the only
person unable to attend an event while all other social media friends could attend then, they
would experience higher EoMQ feelings than when either none or some of their social media
friends were able to attend, with no differences in EMO feelings emerging between conditions
where either none or only some other social media friends were able to attend. More specifically,
we predicted that if participants imagined they were the only person unable to attend an event
while all other social media friends FOMO ANALYSIS 7 could attend, then they would feel
more frustrated and more likely to feel like they were missing out than participants who read that
none or only some other social media friends were able to attend.
Methods
Participants
One hundred and nineteen individuals, mostly FIU students, were randomly selected to
participate in our study. The 119 participants included 47.1% (n = 56) males, 51.3% (n=61)
females, and 1.7% (n=2) who did not specify their gender. Ages varied from a minimum of 15
to a maximum of 67 years old (M= 24.72, SD = 7.40). The sample population consisted of
53.8% Hispanic (n = 64), 24.4% Caucasian (n=29), 11.8 % African Americans (n = 14)
-14), 3.4%
Asian American (n = 4), 1.7 % Native American (n=2), and 5% reporting "Other"
Materials and Procedure.
In regard to the uniform standards for informed consent, potential participants were asked if he
or she is willing to participate in the study. As well as disclosing if there were any risks to the
participant in this study. If they gave verbal consent, then the research materials were presented
to them. Participants randomly received one of three distinct documents that consisted of five
parts. Each document included one of the three conditions that were either "All", "None", or
"Some". Participants were asked to follow the instructions at the top of the page and answer
questions about it later. Part one consisted of participants looking at a Facebook page for a
person named Ben Addams. The page included a profile picture of Ben, menu links (i.e., Friends,
Groups, Events, links to stories, advertisement links, Live Videos, contacts, friend requests,
birthdays, and other details that are regularly seen on a standard Facebook page. Participants see
a post created by Ben inviting his friends to an event that is to take place soon, and he wants to
buy the tickets as soon as possible. The post itself is non-specific about the event, just a male
performer having a rescheduled show that was canceled because of Coxid from the previous
year. Ben's Facebook post says: "Hey everyone! I've got great news. I know we're all thrilled
that the Coxid Quarantine is over and life is finally back to normal. But REAL normal means
ENTERTAINMENT IS BACK! Yep, that's right. Remember the night out we had scheduled for
fall, 2020 until it got cancelled? Well, I just got an alert that he's back in town and he's ready to
ENTERTAIN! You know who I mean (and if you don't know who, then you're no friend of
mine!). The show is Sunday at 8:00. So who's with me? I need to book tickets ASAP, and
they're going fast. I need a headcount really soon (Like today! Like now!)." Following Ben's
post, five friends respond to Ben in a separate post (Lisa, Erika, Carlos, Ari, also included is the
fifth post a "YOUR RESPONSE" post that participants imagined posting). Everything on Ben's
Facebook page is identical across the three conditions, but the only thing that is different is the
responses from Ben's first four friends. In the "All" condition, the first four responses (Lisa,
Erika, Carlos, and Ari) to Ben's Facebook post stated that all four would all attend the event.
Examples of responses included - Lisa Nichols: "You know I'm in. I've been waiting for this for
a long time! I'd go even if I was swamped with work. Thanks!" Erika Siu: "How did you get the
alert before I did? I'd love to go! Plus, I've got nothing else to do on Sunday. I can believe it's
been a year since he was scheduled to perform. In the "Some" condition, the first four responses
(Lisa, Eriak, Carlos, and Ari) to Ben's Facebook post showed that two friends would attend,
while the other two would not attend. Examples of responses included - Lisa Nichols: "You
know I'm in. I've been waiting for this for a long time! I'd go even if I was swamped with work.
Thanks!" Ari Anaz: "I have a thing going on that night, so I think I'll have to bow out this time. I
hate to miss out on this, especially after the year we've had. Coxid Sucks! But I can't go."
Throughout all the three conditions (All, None, and Some), there is a fifth response that is
identical across all conditions known as "YOUR RESPONSE". Participants were asked to
imagine they responded to Ben's post, stating that they cannot join the event: "YOUR
RESPONSE: "Sorry, but your timing couldn't be worse, Ben. I can't go. I have a huge project
due on Monday and I really can't make the time for the show." After reading all five responses,
participants were directed to part two. In part two, participants rated their feelings about their
imagined response on not being able to attend the event. Research participants responded to ten
statements regarding their feelings with an interval scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 6
(Strongly Agree). The ten statements would begin with "I would feel..." followed by numerous
emotions.
Results
Our survey conditions (All, None, or Some) served as our independent variable and the recall of
how many friends agreed to attend the event served as our dependent variable. Using this
information, we ran a manipulation check which presented a significant effect, X 2 (4) =
The findings from our first independent One-Way ANOVA revealed that our independent
variable, the different conditions (All, None, or Some) and our dependent variable, the
agreement scale response from "I would feel frustrated" had a significant effect, F(2, 116) =
9.03, p < .001. Tukey post hoc tests revealed that participants in the "All" condition thought they
would feel more frustrated (M = 3.45, SD = 0.50) than the "None" condition (M = 3.00, SD =
0.62) and "Some" condition (M = 2.95, SD = 0.58), though "None" and "Some" conditions did
not differ from each other. The results show that participants in the "All" condition were more
likely to feel frustrated if they were the only one not attending the event, thus supporting our
prediction. For our second analysis we ran an independent One-Way ANOVA with the different
conditions (All, None, or Some) as our independent variable and "I would feel like I was missing
out" as our dependent variable. The test outcome was significant E(2, 116) = 10.58, p < .001.
Tukey post hoc tests showed that participants in the "All" condition thought that they would feel
like they were missing out (M =2.82, SD = 0.73) than the participants in the "None" condition
(M = 2.21, SD = 0.53) and "Some" condition (M = 2.33, SD=0.57), though the "None" and
"Some" conditions did not differ from each other. This supports our predictions that participants
would feel like they were missing out if they were the only one not capable of attending