Research On The Influence Of Fear Of Missing Out On College Students’ Interpersonal Trust

The fear of missing out is a kind of diffuse anxiety caused by the fear of missing beneficial experiences or the unmet need to keep in touch with others,which has an important impact on individual behavior and social psychological adaptation.Based on the desire perspective that the fear of missing out is derived from interpersonal attachment,this paper examines the relationship between the fear of missing out and the important variables in interpersonal relationship,explores the influence of different levels of fear of missing out on interpersonal trust,so as to provide empirical evidence for relieving college students’ fear of missing out and improving their mental health.This research consisted of four parts.Study 1 investigated the college students’ fear of missing out by Trait-State Fear of missing Out Scale(T-S Fo MOS),and analyzed the status quo of fear of missing out of college students.Study 2 adopted a mixed experiment design of 2(level of fear of missing out: high,low)×3(lexical types: trust-related words,trust-unrelated words,false words)to explore the effects of different levels fear of missing out on college students’ cognitive trust.Considering the relationship intimacy cognition in interpersonal interaction,a mixed experiment design of 2(level of fear of missing out: high,low)×2(relational intimacy cognition: acquaintances,strangers)was adopted in study 3 to explore the effects of different levels of fear of missing out on college students’ interpersonal trust behavior,and whether such effects were consistent in different intimacy relationships.On the basis of study 3,study 4 adopted a mixed experiment design of 2(priming group: security priming,neutral priming)×2(relational intimacy cognition: acquaintances,strangers)to explore whether the activation of security could regulate the interpersonal trust of college students with high fear of missing out in different intimacy relationships.Based on the above four studies,the following results were obtained:(1)College students’ fear of missing out and its two dimensions were at a middle level;There were statistically significant differences in the fear of missing out among college students with different gender,major,grade,place of origin,only child,relationship status and average daily mobile phone use time.(2)The cognitive trust of college students in the group with high fear of missing out was significantly lower than that in the group with low fear of missing out.(3)The interpersonal trust behavior of college students in the group with high fear of missing out was significantly less than that in the group with low fear of missing out.(4)Compared with neutral priming,security priming improved the interpersonal trust of college students with high level of fear of missing out on acquaintances,but the positive effect on strangers’ interpersonal trust was not significant.Conclusion: The fear of missing out has a significant negative effect on interpersonal trust,security priming can effectively buffer the downward trend of interpersonal trust(low interpersonal trust)caused by high fear of missing out,and improve the interpersonal trust of college students with high fear of missing out level on acquaintances,but it has no significant effect on promoting interpersonal trust of strangers.