Fear of Missing Out and Compliance with Restrictions on Socializing

Sammanfattning

Fear of missing out (FoMO) represents a fear of losing out on rewarding experiences that others might have. The Covid-19 pandemic has required great restrictions on social interactions, with many reporting experiences of loneliness. The recommendations for the general public have been followed to different extents, depending on the individual. It is possible that FoMO could decrease compliance with social distancing recommendations and that socially desirable responding (SDR) also is involved. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between university students' FoMO and self-reported compliance with Swedish recommendations on social gatherings during the past year of the Covid-19 pandemic. A second aim was to explore the influence of SDR on this relationship. The study population consisted of 162 university students that responded to an on-line survey containing the validated FoMO scale, the two-factor SDR scale BIDR-16 and questions exploring compliance with restrictive recommendations on social gatherings (CRG). Utilizing a cross-sectional quantitative study design, Pearson correlations and hierarchical regression analyses were performed to investigate these associations. The study results showed that there were no significant difference in CRG between high and low FoMO groups. Analyzed together with the two SDR variables, FoMO was related to worse attitudinal compliance (0.4%) and worse behavioral compliancy (2.9%). A higher level of efforts to be positively perceived by others was associated with higher attitudinal and behavioral compliance. A higher level of unintentionally embellishing one’s own self-assessment decreased behavioral compliance by relating to a higher number of reported events going against the guidelines.