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?]
