1 | Page (Preprint: Good, Megan C. and Michael R. Hyman (2021), “Direct and Indirect Effects of Fear-of-Missing- Out Appeals on Purchase Likelihood,” Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 20 (3), 564-576. DOI: 10.1002/cb.1885) Direct and Indirect Effects of Fear-of-Missing-Out Appeals on Purchase Likelihood Megan C. Good, Assistant Professor of Marketing, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Michael R. Hyman, Distinguished Achievement Professor of Marketing, New Mexico State University Abstract Researchers typically treat fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) as a personality trait or a general sense of anxiety about ‘missing out on’ activities with others. If messages with FOMO-laden appeals can induce context-specific FOMO responses, FOMO is crucial to consumer behaviour scholars and marketing practitioners. Also, certain emotions may moderate the effect of such appeals on consumers’ purchase intentions toward the recommended hedonic service/experience. The vignette-based experiment summarised here suggests that FOMO-laden appeals can influence consumers' purchase intentions. Specifically, such appeals can strengthen purchase intentions by boosting consumers' anticipated elation and self-enhancement or weaken purchase intentions by boosting anticipated expense regret." Keywords: Fear-of-missing-out (FOMO), FOMO-laden appeals, FOMO scale, services, purchase likelihood 1. Introduction FOMO has been defined as a predisposition toward worrying that one’s “peers are doing, or are in possession of more or something better than you” (J. Walter Thompson, 2011), ‘an emotional anxiety’ (Dykman, 2012), ‘a pervasive apprehension others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent’, and ‘a desire to connect continually with peer’s activities as a byproduct of knowing about those activities’ (Przybylski et al., 2013). These conceptuali- zations depict FOMO as a general personal characteristic independent of a single event. However, to better understand its influence on consumer behaviour, such as buying a ticket for a once-in-a-lifetime event like a playoff game or seeing a movie, FOMO should be defined as a context-specific anxiety. Psychologists generally treat fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) as an enduring psychological phenomenon independent of context-specific influences (Przybylski et al., 2013). However, context would be consequential if advertisers can create effective service-centric (e.g., ‘Don’t let your friends go without you’) and convergent (e.g., ‘I could have vacationed with my friends if I had that credit card’) FOMO-laden appeals. Current advertising practice and several marketing studies suggest this is the case (Cocheo, 2018; Hodkinson, 2016; Parsons, 2009; Rea, 2012). FOMO-laden appeals may be commercial or non- commercial and personal or impersonal (Hodkinson, 2016). Commercial FOMO-laden appeals, which mention or imply producer attempts to stimulate product demand or usage, may be delivered impersonally (via ads or webpages) or personally (via salespeople or employees). Non-commercial FOMO-laden appeals made in-person are more influential than appeals made via phone, text messages, or social media (Hodkinson, 2016). Persuasive FOMO-laden appeals mention the negative emotions associated with ‘missing out’ on activities with close friends or family members (Kreilkamp, 1984). Previous research suggests close friends or family members’ hedonic-service-related suggestions can influence buying decisions (Aggarwal & Khurana 2016; Kerrane et al., 2012), and mild social-fear-related appeals in ads can persuade (Tanner et al., 1991). Thus, studying the effect of FOMO-laden appeals by close friends or family members (i.e., mild-anxiety- inducing appeals) on hedonic-service purchase decisions is warranted as a prelude to studying the effect of FOMO-laden appeals developed for commercial promotions. Hence, the research summarised here assessed (1) the direct effect of a FOMO-laden appeal on purchase likelihood, and (2) the indirect effect of a FOMO-laden appeal, via three psychological influences suggested by a preliminary study (i.e., anticipated elation, self-enhancement, and anticipated