I always thought the most common fears were of dying and public speaking. But we have more things to worry about in the 21st century. Chapman University surveyed a random sample of 1,541 adults in America about their fears. They even provided a list of possible things people could be afraid of, and asked them to rank their anxiety from 1 (not afraid) to 4 (very afraid). The percentage of people who responded to a topic as “afraid” or “very afraid” is reflected in the graphic above. It’s right below the top ten that things get really weird. Here are the next ten.
Although everything outside of government corruption is feared by a minority of respondents, some of those are large minorities. Fear of heights and of public speaking are way down on the list, and fear of dying only plagues 21.9% of those surveyed. I guess we’ve come up with too many other things to worry about. You can read about the survey and see the full list at Chapman University’s website. -via mental_floss