What haunts us on Halloween…

…and the rest of the year, according to U.S. survey data

Some of us wear our fears on our sleeves, while others try hard to hide them. But deep down, we all fear something. Many things, really.

For the past 9 years, these fears been have surveyed, quantified, and analyzed by academics at Southern California’s Chapman University. Their College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences is home to a Division on the Study of American Fears, which puts out the annual Chapman University Survey of American Fears (CSAF).

For the survey, a sample of about 1,000 or so Americans are asked to respond to a list of about 100 things in terms of their level of fear.

Included on that list are a some of the spooky things we associate with Halloween and horror films. So in the spirit of the season, I’ve made a graphic from the 2023 data showing what fraction of Americans are afraid of a few of those things.

Selected spooky fears and the percentage of Americans who have them.

But more than ghosts, zombies, or spiders, more Americans fear things like societal collapse and the end of times. More specifically, here are the top ten American fears from the 2023 data:

1. Corrupt government officials (60.1%)
2. Economic/financial collapse (54.7%)
3. Russia using nuclear weapons (52.5%)
4. The US becoming involved in another World War (52.3%)
5. People I love becoming seriously ill (50.6%)
6. People I love dying (50.4%)
7. Pollution of drinking water (50.0%)
8. Biological warfare (49.5%)
9. Cyber-terrorism (49.3%)
10. Not having enough money for the future (48.0%)

According to past surveys, these same things usually top the list from year to year. But between 2017 and 2021, pretty much all of them increased substantially, with ‘fear of corrupt government officials’ being shared by about 80% of the population when it peaked in 2021. The graph below shows that data (this graph is borrowed from the university’s assessment report of their 2023 data, found here.)

Graphic from the Chapman University Survey of American Fears report of 2023 data.

These top fears align pretty well with something that novelist Stephen King said in an interview. “Americans are apocalyptic by nature. The reason why is that we’ve always had so much, so we live in deadly fear that people are going to take it away from us.” Clearly, Mr. King knows a thing or two about fear.

Other items on the list are related to phobias, crimes, bigotries, natural disasters, and many other social and political concerns. Looking at the number of people who are afraid of some of those things is itself a frightening reality check.

Robert Lawrence writes about science and illustrates data. You can find his published work at www.robertlawrencephd.com