The development of a single item FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) scale Benjamin C. Riordan 1 & Louise Cody 1 & Jayde A. M. Flett 1 & Tamlin S. Conner 1 & John Hunter 1 & Damian Scarf 1 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2018 Abstract The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is the sense that others are having a rewarding experience which one is absent from. Given that it is associated with the drive to remain socially connected, research has predominantly focused on the link between FoMO and social networking use. While a 10-item measure of FoMO is widely used (FoMOs), a shorter scale may be preferable in some circumstances and would allow FoMO to be measured in more diverse contexts. Therefore, we aimed to validate a FoMO short- form (consisting of a single item: BDo you experience FoMO?^). In Studies 1 to 3, we measured the concurrent validity of the FoMOsf with the 10-item FoMOs (Pearson’ s R correlation between the FoMOs and FoMOsf: Study 1 r = .735, r = .654; Study 2 r = .638; Study 3 r = .807). In Study 2, we measured the test-retest reliability of the FoMOsf (r = .717). In Study 2 and 3, we measured the construct validity of the FoMOsf by linking the FoMOsf to social networking use. The FoMOsf showed good concurrent validity, construct validity, and test-retest reliability and is adequate for use in research. Keywords Fear of missing out . FoMO . Single-item . Ecological momentary assessment . Measurement The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is defined as the B…pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent^ and is characterized by the need to B…stay continually connected with what others are doing^ (Przybylski et al. 2013, p. 1841). Although the feeling of miss- ing out is not a new concept, with the advent of social network- ing sites (e.g., Facebook, Snapchat, etc.), people can now be chronically reminded of events they are missing out on. With respect to its psychological underpinnings, Przybylski et al. (2013) suggest that FoMO derives from a deficit in psycholog- ical need satisfaction such as the need for social connection. While one could argue that social networking sites provide an avenue for meeting some of these needs (e.g., connection), so- cial networking sites may also serve to exacerbate FoMO by reminding individuals what experiences they are missing out on in real time. Accordingly, research has typically focused on correlates between FoMO and unhealthy relationships with me- dia and technology. For example, FoMO has been associated with social networking site addiction (Blackwell et al. 2017; Kuss and Griffiths 2017), the amount of stress experienced when using social networking sites (Beyens et al. 2016), use of mobile phones while driving/learning (Przybylski et al. 2013), decreased self-esteem (Buglass et al. 2017), college mal- adjustment (Alt 2016), poor sleep (Adams et al. 2016), and a range of other negative outcomes (Baker et al. 2016; Elhai et al. 2016; Oberst et al. 2017; Riordan et al. 2015). Adolescents and young adults may be particularly sensitive to FoMO as they are more sensitive to social information than adults (Lamblin et al. 2017). To date, FoMO has been measured predominantly using Przybylski et al.’ s(2013) 10-item FoMO scale (FoMOs; cf. Abel et al. 2016). The FoMOs measures the extent to which individuals fear missing out on events, experiences, or group activities (e.g., BWhen I miss out on a planned get together it bothers me^; BI fear others have more rewarding experiences than me^). Participants rate each item on a five-point Likert Louise Cody and Jayde A. M. Flett contributed equally to this work. * Benjamin C. Riordan ben.riordan@postgrad.otago.ac.nz * Damian Scarf damian@psy.otago.ac.nz Louise Cody louise.cody@postgrad.otago.ac.nz Jayde A. M. Flett jflett@psy.otago.ac.nz Tamlin S. Conner tconner@psy.otago.ac.nz John Hunter jhunter@psy.otago.ac.nz 1 Department of Psychology, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand Current Psychology https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-018-9824-8