THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT (FOMO) EFFECT IN ADVERTISING AND ITS NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT ON IMPULSE BUYING
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18512723Keywords:
FOMO - fear of missing out effect, impulse buying, neuromarketing, emotional arousal, galvanic skin response (GSR) / electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate (HR), electroencephalography (EEG), reward systemAbstract
This paper examines FOMO cues (scarcity, countdowns) in advertising and their neuropsychological impact.
Versus neutral ads, FOMO increases arousal (GSR, HR), alters EEG patterns, and speeds impulse buying and purchase
decisions, informing ethical use
References
1. Boucsein, W. (2012). Electrodermal activity (2nd ed.). Springer.
2. Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: Science and practice (5th ed.). Pearson.
3. Davidson, R. J. (1992). Anterior cerebral asymmetry and the nature of emotion. Brain and Cognition, 20(1), 125–151.
4. Good, M. C., & Hyman, M. R. (2021). Direct and indirect effects of fear-of-missing-out appeals on purchase likelihood.
Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 20(3), 564–576.
5. Harmon-Jones, E., & Gable, P. A. (2018). On the role of asymmetric frontal cortical activity in approach and withdrawal
motivation: An updated review of the evidence. Psychophysiology, 55(1), e12879.
6. Iyer, G. R., Blut, M., Xiao, S. H., & Grewal, D. (2020). Impulse buying: A meta-analytic review. Journal of the Academy
of Marketing Science, 48, 384–404.
7. Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
8. Khetarpal, M., & Singh, S. (2024). “Limited Time Offer”: Impact of time scarcity messages on consumer’s impulse
purchase. Journal of Promotion Management, 30(2), 282–301.
9. Lynn, M. (1991). Scarcity effects on value: A quantitative review of the commodity theory literature. Psychology &
Marketing, 8(1), 43–57.
10. 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.
11. Schultz, W. (1998). Predictive reward signal of dopamine neurons. Journal of Neurophysiology, 80(1), 1–27.
12. Wu, Y., Xin, L., Li, D., Yu, J., & Guo, J. (2021). How does scarcity promotion lead to impulse purchase in the online
market? A field experiment. Information & Management, 58(1), 103283.
13. Yi, L., Ding, D., Zhang, X., & Fu, D. (2022). Scarcity enhances outcome evaluation in the present: Electroencephalography
evidence. Brain Sciences, 12(11), 1560.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 GREEN ECONOMY AND DEVELOPMENT

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.