The phubbing phenomenon: a cross-sectional study on the relationships among social media addiction, fear of missing out, personality traits, and phubbing behavior

Abstract Pathological phubbing behavior has become an increasingly prevalent issue in recent years yet research surrounding these technological concerns remains scarce. The current study seeks to contribute to this limited body of research by providing insight into the antecedents of excessive and severe phubbing behavior and potential risk factors of pathological technology use as a whole. 938 undergraduate students participated in a cross-sectional study to determine whether demographic variables, personality traits, and degrees of social media addiction and fear of missing out could explain phubbing behavior. Participants responded to a survey that included the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS), Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMO), Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), and Phubbing Scale (Phubbing). Bivariate correlations identified that BSMAS and FoMO were significantly positively correlated with phubbing while TIPI displayed a significantly negative correlation with phubbing. Further, hierarchical multiple regression analyses established that BSMAS holds the most predictive power for phubbing while FoMO displayed a significantly less robust predictive power. TIPI was shown to be significant but served less to explain the variance in phubbing behaviors.