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The fear in desire: Linking desire thinking and fear of missing out in the social media context
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Description: According to the Elaborated Intrusion Theory of Desire, desire thinking and an associated deficit are fundamental factors to the emergence of craving. In the special case of problematic social networks (SNS) use, this experienced deficit could be constituted of an online-specific fear of missing out (FoMO). To test the interaction of these cognitions and their influence on problematic SNS use, we tested a serial mediation model on a sample of N = 193 social networks users. We found that desire thinking could predict FoMO and both variables were only significant predictors of problematic SNS use when considered in interplay with craving. Our results highlight that neither desire thinking nor FoMO are inherently dysfunctional but become problematic when they increase craving for potentially problematic SNS use.
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