Fear of missing out (FoMO) and status anxiety as drivers of materialism and conspicuous consumption among social media users

Abstract The study investigated the relationship between exposure to influencers (EtoI), materialism (M), fear of missing out (FoMO), status anxiety (SA), and conspicuous consumption (CC) levels. The study implemented a convenience sampling technique, and 694 participants were included in the sample population. The data for the analysis were obtained via an online survey. The analyses were conducted via SmartPLS. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the usability of the model. The findings indicated that FoMO mediates the relationship between EtoI and CC with a significant level of p = .003. Also, FoMO mediates the relationship between M and CC with a significant level of p = .034. In addition, SA mediates the relationship between M and CC with a significance level of p = .000. As a result, this study provides a variety of practical and theoretical implications that could assist CC behavior of consumers with the relationship EtoI, M, FoMO, SA, and CC.