The impact of personality traits on fear of missing out and impulsive buying behavior

Rapid changes in technological developments have caused consumer behavior to differentiate and reshape. Consumers' involvement with these technologies causes them to be constantly active in digital environments and feel the need to follow developments on social media platforms. Consumers' desire to constantly follow these developments can turn into fear after a while. This fear is the fear of missing out (FOMO), which is becoming increasingly evident in modern consumer behavior. This fear becomes an important factor that affects consumers' decisions, behaviors and consumption trends not only in online environments but also in their daily lives. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of five factor personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness to experience) and the perception of scarcity on the fear of missing out (FOMO) that consumers may experience during the shopping process in traditional channels. At the same time, it is aimed to reveal the possible effect of the fear of missing opportunities on impulsive buying behavior. In this context, it is focused on examining the relationships between personality traits, scarcity perception, FOMO and impulsive buying behavior variables in detail with the help of a model. For this purpose, research data was collected from 403 participants determined by quota sampling in Balıkesir province, using face-to-face and online survey methods. SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 24.0 programs were used to analyze the collected data. Research findings reveal that consumers' perception of scarcity during the shopping process and conscientiousness and neuroticism, which are personality traits, affect FOMO. It has been determined that FOMO has a very high and positive effect on impulsive buying behavior. Based on the findings obtained as a result of the research, suggestions were made especially to sector-based companies. In addition, the study was completed by making various suggestions for researchers.