What are the hypotheses for study 1?

How many levels there are for the IV?

4

2

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5

Study 1

The current study was designed to measure FoMO 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 FoMO feelings than when either none or some of their social media friends were able to attend, with no differences in FoMO 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

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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), 3.4% Asian American (n= 4), 1.7% Native American (n= 2), and 5%reporting "Other"(n= 6). See Table 1. Table 1 Demographics-Study One

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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 consistedof 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 answerquestions 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,

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Memories, etc....), 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 Covid from the previousyear. Ben's Facebook post says: "Hey everyone! I've got great news. I know we're all thrilledthat the Covid Quarantine is over and life is finally back to normal. But REAL normal meansENTERTAINMENT 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 toENTERTAIN! 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'spost, 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 imaginedposting). Everything on Ben's Facebook page is identical across thethree conditions, but theonly 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 fourwould 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 elsetodo on Sunday. I can believe it's been a year since he was scheduled to perform. Sucks that the show got cancelled then, but it's great that I get to go now."

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In the "None" condition, the first four responses (Lisa, Erika, Carlos, and Ari) to Ben'sFacebook post about the event indicated that none of them would attend. Examples of responses included -Carlos Hererra: "I'm out. I've really been looking forward toa return to normalcy, butI have something else that night, and this is short notice. I can't change my plans." 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 onthis, especially after the year we've had. Covid Sucks! But I can't go."

In the"Some" condition, the first four responses (Lisa, Eriak, Carlos, and Ari) to Ben'sFacebook 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, especiallyafter the yearwe've had. Covid Sucks! But I can't go."

Throughout all the three conditions (All, None, and Some), there is a fifth response that isidentical across all conditions known as "YOUR RESPONSE". Participants were asked toimagine 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 beginwith "I would feel ..." followed by numerous emotions. The ten statements were, "I would feel frustrated", "I would feel happy", "I would feel depressed", "I would feel alone", "I would feel

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like I was missing out", "I would feel I anxious", "I would feel calm", "I would feel joyful", "I would feel envious", and "I would not feel any strong emotion".

Part three asked research participants to rate five statements in regard to how each statement applies to their general life. This part analyzed for the trait of FoMO from a scale of 1(Strongly Disagree) to 6 (Strongly Agree). The statements in part three were: "I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me", "WhenI miss out on a planned get-together, it bothersme", 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", and "When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs onwhat my friends are doing".

Part four asked participants to fill out their demographic information such as their age, gender, relationship status, race/ethnicity, if their first language was English, and if they were a current FIU student. Part five was an attention check (manipulation check). Part five askedparticipants, without looking back at the Facebook post, how many of Ben's friends stated that they will attend the event, mark one of the following, "all agreed to attend", "none agreed to attend", or "some agreed to attend". Once participants finished with their surveys they werethanked for their participation and debriefed about the purpose of this study.

Note that there were many dependent variables, but our key focus was on "feel frustrated", "like I was missing out" as our dependent variables, and if our participants correctlyanswered our attention check in part five.

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,X2(4) =

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79.31,p< .001. However, more than half of the participants in the "All" condition incorrectlyrecalled how many were attending the event (55.3%) , more specifically they recalled that none of the friends were attending, while the remainder correctly remembered that all friends were attending(42.1%) Most participants in the "None" condition correctly recalled that none of the friends were attending the event (68.4%). As well as the majority of participants in the "Some"condition correctly remembered that only a few but not all of the friends were attending (81.4%).Cramer's V was significant. These results indicate that our manipulation worked. See Table 2.Table 2

Crosstabs and Chi Square-Study One

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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, theagreement 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 theywould 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 morelikely to feel frustrated if they were the only one not attending the event, thus supporting our prediction. See Table 3.

Table 3

ANOVA Frustrated-Study One

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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 missingout" as our dependentvariable. The test outcome was significantF(2, 116) = 10.58,p< .001.Tukey post hoc tests showed that participants in the "All" condition thought that they would feellike 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 participantswould feel like they were missing out if they were the only one not capable of attending. See Table 4. Table 4

ANOVA"Like I was Missing Out" -Study One

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Discussion

Our predictions for this study were supported. We predicted that participants in the "All" condition would feel more "frustrated "and like they were "missing out" if they were the only person not able to attend the event compared to participants in the "None" and "Some" conditions. However, although the test was significant the majority of people in the "All"

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condition failed our manipulation check stating that none of the friends were attending the event. Despite the failure in the manipulation check, our results still showed significance on dependentvariables, "feel frustrated" and "like I was missing out". This could be due to the possibility thatwhen unfortunately, being the only one unable to attend, participants felt like they knew what they were missing, which is a fun night out with all their friends.