FoMO is linked to evolutionary behaviors, study finds

A new study published in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences looked at FoMO (“Fear of Missing Out”) from an evolutionary perspective, finding the phenomenon was positively linked to competitive behaviors and short-term mating interests, with women higher in FoMO experiencing reduced social support.

“The topic of FoMO captured our attention because it seems like a completely new cultural phenomenon that grew in popularity around 2010,” said study author Adam Davis, PhD, a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Canadore College.

“This makes sense considering that the internet and social media are more recent human inventions. But feelings of anxiety related to missing out on important social events likely extend deep into our evolutionary past. Belonging, affiliation, and socialization are fundamental human needs, which is why our species has been characterized as ‘ultra-social.’ Social events, like playing organized sports, participating in ceremonies, and attending parties, are culturally unique, but they seem to matter regardless of which society we are looking at. This insight motivated us to look beyond the more clinically focused research on FoMO and to consider its possible evolutionary origins.”

The study included 327 heterosexual American adults ages 19-60, recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants completed measures of FoMO (e.g., “I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me”), status seeking (e.g., “Being very successful is important to me. I hope people recognize my achievements”), intrasexual competition (e.g., “I can’t stand it when I meet another woman/man who is more attractive than I am”), sociosexual orientation (e.g., “I can imagine myself being comfortable and enjoying ‘casual’ sex with different partners”, and received social support (i.e., emotional and practical support from 11 possible sources).

“We want people to consider that FoMO is likely not a completely new culturally specific experience. Missing out on important social activities can negatively impact the ability of people to stay connected to family members and friends, to meet new sexual and romantic partners, to expand our social networks, and to learn about what is going on in the lives of others around us,” explained Davis.

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“We wanted to test the idea that FoMO might alert people to the threat of not participating in these important social activities, which could motivate them to seek out and compete for social and sexual opportunities. Among American adults, we found that higher levels of FoMO were associated with competing more fiercely for social status, a stronger inclination to self-promote and derogate rivals, and a greater desire to seek out short-term sex partners.”

While FoMO was positively associated with unrestricted sociosexual behavior and desires, it did not significantly correlate with unrestricted sociosexual attitudes, which captures beliefs about the morality or acceptability of sex without love and intimacy.

Interestingly, FoMO did not broadly affect received social support; however, the researchers found that women with higher levels of FoMO reported receiving less social support, suggesting there may be gender-specific impacts of FoMO on social connections in particular.

I asked Davis if there are any major caveats to this study. The researcher responded, “Our study involved a sample of American adults who completed an online self-report questionnaire. So, we cannot conclude that higher levels of FoMO in those adults caused them to compete more actively for social and sexual opportunities. And we cannot say that the same findings would apply to adolescents or adults in different nations across the world. We can only argue that these variables are related to each other in an American context.”

“Because we are taking an evolutionary perspective in this research, it is important to see if these findings replicate in other cultural contexts. This is necessary to provide support for the argument that FoMO is not a culturally specific experience, but something that likely extends deeper into our evolutionary past. We also only measured desire to seek out short-term sexual partners, and it might be the case that higher levels of FoMO relate to competing for long-term romantic partners as well.”

Davis added, “People are highly motivated to think of the cultural aspects of our psychology. There is a strong ‘nurture’ assumption when we consider our attitudes, emotions, personality traits, and behavior. But, we know that psychology results from interactions between the forces of nature (e.g., genetics, evolution, etc.) and nurture (e.g., family upbringing, the media, etc.).”

“Therefore, when thinking about concepts that suddenly capture the public’s interest, like FoMO, we should also consider the forces of nature: is that psychological concept culturally and/or historically unique? What function or purpose does it serve? Might it have helped to solve problems related to survival or reproduction in our evolutionary past?”

The study, “The links between fear of missing out, status-seeking, intrasexual competition, sociosexuality, and social support”, was authored by Adam C. Davis, Graham Albert, and Steven Arnocky.