Scale library · Psychology & mental health
Fear of Missing Out scale: Przybylski et al. (2013)
FoMO (fear of missing out) is a pervasive apprehension that others are having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, together with a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan and Gladwell (2013) were the first to measure it, reducing 32 candidate items to a 10-item scale. It is often used in theses on social media and smartphone addiction, academic distraction and trend-driven shopping among young people.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: FoMOs
- Constructs: 1
- Items: 10
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO, 10 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| FO1 | I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me. | No |
| FO2 | I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me. | No |
| FO3 | I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me. | No |
| FO4 | I get anxious when I don't know what my friends are up to. | No |
| FO5 | It is important that I understand my friends "in jokes". | No |
| FO6 | Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on. | No |
| FO7 | It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends. | No |
| FO8 | When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating status). | No |
| FO9 | When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me. | No |
| FO10 | When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing. | No |
Response scale
5-point truth scale, not an agreement scale: 1 = Not at all true of me, 2 = Slightly true of me, 3 = Moderately true of me, 4 = Very true of me, 5 = Extremely true of me. The FoMO score is the mean of the 10 items; there are no reverse-coded items.
Licence and permission
The scale is published in full in Appendix A of Przybylski et al. (2013) and widely used in research. Cite the original article; we found no fee requirement for non-commercial research.
Sources (APA 7)
- Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841–1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.