IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v63y2024ics154461232400374x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An economic definition of ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO)

Author

Listed:
  • Kaddouhah, Mohammed

Abstract

This research note proposes a decision theoretic definition of the popular phenomenon of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Our definition assumes that FOMO causes individuals to base their decision-making utility on their own anticipated regret and the decisions made by individuals in their social peer group. We use an example related to asset trading in order to illustrate how to analyse decision-making under FOMO preferences and to highlight differences with the concept of regret aversion.

Suggested Citation

  • Kaddouhah, Mohammed, 2024. "An economic definition of ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO)," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:63:y:2024:i:c:s154461232400374x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2024.105344
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S154461232400374X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2024.105344?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David E. Bell, 1982. "Regret in Decision Making under Uncertainty," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(5), pages 961-981, October.
    2. Ernst Fehr & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1999. "A Theory of Fairness, Competition, and Cooperation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 817-868.
    3. Qin, Jie, 2015. "A model of regret, investor behavior, and market turbulence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 150-174.
    4. Quiggin, John, 1994. "Regret Theory with General Choice Sets," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 153-165, March.
    5. Loomes, Graham & Sugden, Robert, 1982. "Regret Theory: An Alternative Theory of Rational Choice under Uncertainty," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(368), pages 805-824, December.
    6. Zeelenberg, M., 1999. "Anticipated regret, expected feedback and behavioral decision-making," Other publications TiSEM 38371d1b-31fd-45b0-860f-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    7. Fabio Maccheroni & Massimo Marinacci & Aldo Rustichini, 2012. "Social Decision Theory: Choosing within and between Groups," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1591-1636.
    8. Kota Saito, 2013. "Social Preferences under Risk: Equality of Opportunity versus Equality of Outcome," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 3084-3101, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohammed Kaddouhah, 2023. "An Economic Definition of 'Fear of Missing Out' (FOMO)," Working Papers 2023-01, Swansea University, School of Management.
    2. Diecidue, Enrico & Somasundaram, Jeeva, 2017. "Regret theory: A new foundation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 88-119.
    3. Zheng, Jiakun, 2021. "Willingness to pay for reductions in health risks under anticipated regret," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    4. Michenaud, Sébastien & Solnik, Bruno, 2008. "Applying regret theory to investment choices: Currency hedging decisions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 677-694, September.
    5. Kuang, Yunjuan & Ng, Chi To, 2018. "Pricing substitutable products under consumer regrets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 286-300.
    6. Pierpaolo Battigalli & Martin Dufwenberg, 2022. "Belief-Dependent Motivations and Psychological Game Theory," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 833-882, September.
    7. Müller, Stephan & Rau, Holger A., 2020. "Motivational crowding out effects in charitable giving: Experimental evidence," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Chorus, Caspar G. & Arentze, Theo A. & Timmermans, Harry J.P., 2008. "A Random Regret-Minimization model of travel choice," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 1-18, January.
    9. Klimm, Felix & Kocher, Martin G. & Opitz, Timm & Schudy, Simeon, 2023. "Time pressure and regret in sequential search," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 406-424.
    10. Korn, Olaf & Rieger, Marc Oliver, 2019. "Hedging with regret," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(C), pages 192-205.
    11. Entrop, Oliver & Fuchs, Fabian U., 2020. "Foreign exchange rate exposure of companies under dynamic regret," Passauer Diskussionspapiere, Betriebswirtschaftliche Reihe B-40-20, University of Passau, Faculty of Business and Economics.
    12. Michael Braun & Alexander Muermann, 2004. "The Impact of Regret on the Demand for Insurance," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 71(4), pages 737-767, December.
    13. Gabillon, Emmanuelle, 2020. "When choosing is painful: Anticipated regret and psychological opportunity cost," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 644-659.
    14. Qin, Jie, 2015. "A model of regret, investor behavior, and market turbulence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 150-174.
    15. Qianshuo Liu, 2023. "The impact of consumer’s regret on firms’ decisions in a durable good market," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 125-157, July.
    16. Yang, Xiying & Hua, Guowei & Cheng, T.C.E. & Zhang, Li & Zhang, Yi & Xu, Yadong, 2022. "Buy two and get X% off: Quantity discount under consumers’ anticipated regret," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 250(C).
    17. Hoelzl, Erik & Loewenstein, George, 2005. "Wearing out your shoes to prevent someone else from stepping into them: Anticipated regret and social takeover in sequential decisions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 15-27, September.
    18. Emmanuelle GABILLON, 2020. "When choosing is painful: anticipated regret and psychological opportunity cost," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2020-04, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    19. Müller, Stephan & Rau, Holger A., 2018. "Motivational crowding out effects in charitable giving: Experimental evidence," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 338, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    20. Kircher, Philipp & Sandroni, Alvaro & Ludwig, Sandra, 2009. "Fairness: A Critique to the Utilitarian Approach," Discussion Paper Series of SFB/TR 15 Governance and the Efficiency of Economic Systems 288, Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Mannheim, University of Munich.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Anticipated regret; Fear of Missing Out; FOMO; Financial decision-making;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:63:y:2024:i:c:s154461232400374x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.