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Think of FOMO – fear of missing out – and you might think of missing the concert of the year, an epic party or a big family gathering.

But research shows that FOMO has far more to do with people, social status and belonging – and is not just a social media-fuelled phenomenon.

“FOMO refers to the anxiety that people feel when they miss out on a social group experience – and, specifically, the bonding that their group shared at the experience – because they worry that missing out will negatively affect their connection and future belonging with the group,” says Cindy Chan, an assistant professor of marketing at the ������Ƶ Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management.

Chan and fellow researcher Jacqueline Rifkin, assistant professor of marketing at Cornell University, say the study sprung from their curiosity about what was behind the acronym’s growing popularity in the early 2010s.

“The term FOMO was being used more often and we wondered what this meant,” says Chan. “What were people afraid of missing out on? What situations or events might make someone feel FOMO?”

Joined by University of Pennsylvania marketing professor Barbara Kahn, the group set up multiple experiments, including with teenaged summer camp attendees and online participants, using scenarios such as missed concerts, group retreats and group initiation events, as well as exposure to participants’ own social media feeds.

They found that while FOMO was initiated by worries about missing a social bonding experience with a valued group, it got its fuel from a sometimes exaggerated sense of the potential relationship consequences for missing out and was worse for people who already tended to be socially anxious. Distinct from disappointment about missing an enjoyable experience, FOMO could even be felt in relation to potentially unpleasant scenarios such as a team-building event with demanding, stressful activities.

While the researchers did not specifically study whether FOMO is a byproduct of social media engagement, they note that the key mechanism that underpins FOMO can be experienced without the use of technology like a mobile phone or social media platforms.

“It’s possible that social media may mean we are reminded more of social events we miss, because others may make social media posts about the event,” Chan says. “So this could mean we experience FOMO more, or more often.”

It may be possible to bring people back from the FOMO brink. Negative feelings were reduced for people whose FOMO was triggered by exposure to social media posts about events they had missed but who were then invited to reflect on a past valued group event they did attend, thereby reaffirming their sense of belonging. 

“This research reveals how central social relationships are in people’s experience of FOMO and reinforces how important these relationships are to our personal and emotional well-being,” says Chan.

The researchers are currently working on a paper about how FOMO can enhance customer engagement with corporate brands.