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Cited by 93Impact of Technology on AdolescentsMedia and Digital CommunicationPersonality Traits and Psychology

Fear of Missing Out and Personality as Predictors of Social Networking Sites Usage: The Instagram Case

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Moore, Kelly, Craciun, Georgiana·2021·Psychological Reports
DOI 10.1177/0033294120936184
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Abstract

With the exponential increase in the number of social networking sites (SNS) users, there is also a significant shift in the popularity of these SNS. Moreover, fear of missing out (FOMO) is often blamed for the growth in SNS addictive tendencies. The current research examines the influence of FOMO and Big 5 personality traits on SNS attitudes, usage, and addictive tendencies in the context of an increasingly popular SNS – Instagram. Participants completed online questionnaires that assessed their personality traits and then be-friended one of the researchers on Instagram, which provided the actual Instagram activity data (e.g., total number of Instagram posts, total number of likes, etc.). Hierarchical regression results showed that personality factors explained significant amounts of variance in terms of attitude towards Instagram, number of likes, total number of Instagram posts since account inception, and social media addictive tendencies. Furthermore, FOMO had a significant positive effect on attitude toward Instagram, the total number of Instagram accounts that respondents followed, and social media addictive tendencies.

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  41. Author Biographies Kelly Moore: is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Duquesne University. She received her PhD in Marketing at Iowa State University. Her research interests include individual differences such as personality characteristics, social media, food marketing, and online word-of-mouth. Her work has appeared in scholarly journals such as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Computers in Human Behavior, Services Marketing Quarterly, and Journal of Food Products Marketing.
  42. Georgiana Craciun: is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Duquesne University. She received her doctoral degree in marketing from University of South Carolina. Her research interests include online information disclosure and privacy, electronic word-of-mouth, social media, consumer welfare, and inno- vation in teaching methods. Her research has been published in Journal of Business Research, Decision Support Systems, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Education, and Marketing Education Review. She received the Best Paper Award at WeB 2018. She is a member of the American Marketing Association and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Marketing Education.

Authors
Moore, K., & Craciun, G.
Affiliations
  • Duquesne University (US)
  • Department of Marketing, Palumbo-Donahue School of Business, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Corresponding author
Moore, Kelly
ORCID
Moore, Kelly
Venue
Psychological Reports
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2020-07-12
Volume
124
Issue
4
Pages
1761-1787
ISSN
  • 0033-2941 (ISSN-L)
  • 1558-691X
DOI
10.1177/0033294120936184
OpenAlex
W3041363362
Cited by
93
References
84
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 9
FWCI
17.35
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Psychological Reports (publishedVersion, public-domain)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Duquesne University (Presidential Scholarship Award)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Impact of Technology on Adolescents
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Networks and Communications › Media and Digital Communication
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
Keywords
fear of missing out, Big Five personality traits, Instagram, social networking sites, social media addiction, social media use, attitudes toward social media, social media followers
MeSH terms
Attitude, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Personality, Behavior, Addictive, Young Adult, Social Networking, Social Media

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