This New Study Reveals What Americans Fear Most

Chapman University has just published a fascinating new study revealing the most common fears among Americans. In April of this year, 1,541 adults took part in the Survey of American Fears, Wave 2, and were asked to rank their level of fear about eighty-eight different topics from 1 (not afraid) to 4 (very afraid). The study categorized fears into 10 different domains, including crime, the government, judgment of others, man-made and natural disasters, and personal anxieties.

The study found that Americans are most afraid of man-made disasters, such as warfare and terrorist attacks, as well as technology, like artificial intelligence and cyber-terrorism. Judgment of others, based on factors such as appearance, age, or gender identity, ranked the lowest of the 10 categories. Here is the complete ranking of Domains by Fear:

Of all of the eighty-eight fears respondents were asked about, the largest percentage (58%) of Americans expressed being “afraid” or “very afraid” of the corruption of government officials. Here’s the list of top ten fears most commonly had by Americans:

It seems like there are some recurring themes of the greatest fears Americans have—many of them are government-related! Topics like natural disasters and personal anxieties tended to fall further down on the list (you can see the complete ranking of all eighty-eight fears here). It almosts sounds like people are more afraid (or mistrusting?) of each other than anything else. It’s fascinating how much a simple question like “what are you most afraid of?” can tell us about ourselves.