WHAT DO AMERICAS FEAR MOST?

Americans' biggest fears are related to government and technology, not ghosts and goblins, according to the Survey of American Fear by researchers at Chapman University in California. For the survey, the researchers polled a representative sample of approximately 1,500 Americans and found that the majority of Americans (58 percent) are either "afraid" or "very afraid" of the corruption of government officials. Cyberterrorism was also high on the list, with 44.8 percent of those surveyed saying they feared these kinds of attacks
Fears related to the government and the malicious use of technology beat out what some people may view as much spookier stuff — things like biological warfare, being murdered or ghosts. (About half of all Americans hold some kind of belief in the paranormal, like ghosts, but these apparitions are not ranked highly on the list of fears.) [What Really Scares People: Top 10 Phobias]
"People tend to show higher levels of fear for things that they are both dependent upon and feel like they have no control over. And that fits with both the government and technology," said Christopher Bader, a professor of sociology at Chapman University and leader of the second annual Fear Survey.
 he survey asked people questions related to "domains of fear." These are overarching themes that encompass a host of individual fears. For example, crime is a domain of fear that includes the fear of being murdered or raped, as well as the fear of being robbed or having one's identity stolen.
Included in the personal anxiety domain of fear are things like a fear of clowns and a fear of tight spaces. In total, the researchers identified 10 domains of fear that encompassed 88 individual fears and anxieties.
The survey found that, on average, the things that Americans fear most fall into three of the 10 domains of fear — fear of man-made disasters (terrorist attacks and e
Fearful actions
But the survey didn't just ask Americans what they fear; it also asked them whether these fears influence their actions in some way. For example, 32.6 percent of survey participants who had an above-average fear of government said they had voted for a particular candidate due to their fears. And 31.8 percent of respondents with an above-average fear of technology said they had voted for a particular candidate because of their fears.
"Our interest really lies not just in tracking peoples' fears over time but in tracking what these fears do," said Bader, who pointed out that peoples' fears can influence not only who they vote for but also whether or not they buy a gun or send their kids to private schools.
conomic collapse), technology (cyberterrorism and artificial intelligence) and government (corruption and gun control). The three domains of fear that Americans are least concerned about include judgment of others (personal appearance and weight), everyday life (talking to strangers and romantic rejection) and personal anxieties (public speaking and clowns). [Why Are People So Afraid of Sharks?]