The Influence Of Financial Literacy And Fear Of Missing Out (Fomo) On Cryptocurrency Investment Decisions Among University Students
Keywords:
financial literacy; fear of missing out; cryptocurrency; investment decision; university students.Abstract
University students have become an important group of cryptocurrency investors in Indonesia, but their investment decisions may be driven as much by emotion as by knowledge. This study examines the influence of financial literacy and fear of missing out (FOMO) on cryptocurrency investment decisions among university students, and tests whether financial literacy moderates the effect of FOMO. Data were collected through an online questionnaire from 227 students who had invested in cryptocurrency, selected by purposive sampling. Financial literacy was measured with an objective eight-item knowledge test, while FOMO and investment decisions were measured with Likert scales. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression and moderated regression analysis with heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors. The results show that both financial literacy (β = 0.195) and FOMO (β = 0.355) have positive and significant effects on investment decisions, with FOMO being the stronger predictor. The interaction term is negative and significant, and adds 4.5 percentage points of explained variance: the effect of FOMO is strong among students with low financial literacy but becomes insignificant among those with high literacy. In addition, 56.4% of respondents answered fewer than 60% of the literacy questions correctly. The findings indicate that financial literacy acts as a buffer against emotionally driven investment and support the integration of crypto-specific and behavioral content into financial education for students.
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