Fear surveys in Pakistan, Kuwait, and the UAE ranked public speaking 8th, 4th, and 7th, while injections were 5th, 6th, and 3rd

For Halloween 2012 I blogged about how Either way you look at it, public speaking really is not our greatest fear. Three more recent surveys confirm that statement. Snakes came first in all three.

A Daily Times newspaper article from December 21, 2015 titled Diabetic patients in Pakistan afraid of injecting needles: experts reported that a nationwide survey had shown the ten most common fears there were:

1]   Snakes
2]   Heights
3]   Sharks
4]   Lighting
5]   Injections
6]   Spiders
7]   Flying
8]   Public speaking
9]   Exams
10] Clowns

Another article in the Kuwait Times on December 27, 2015 titled Needles make top ten of Kuwait’s residents biggest fears list reported that the six most common Kuwaiti fears were:

1]  Snakes
2]  Sharks
3]  Heights
4]  Public speaking
5]  Spiders
6]  Injections

but it inexplicably opened by instead claiming that:

“Needles top the list of Kuwait residents’ biggest fears according to a recent nationwide survey where residents were asked to rank things people are commonly afraid of.” 

A third article in the Gulf Times on January 3, 2016 titled Needle phobia among UAE’s biggest fears said the seven most common fears in the United Arab Emirates were:

1]  Snakes
2]  Sharks
3]  Injections
4]  Heights
5]  Spiders
6]  Lightening
7]  Public speaking

I think they really meant to say lightning rather than lighting or lightening. When I looked on Google, I could not find press releases with more survey details. Perhaps those originally were in Urdu or Arabic.  

All three surveys were done by Medtronic, a U. S. medical device company. They were using them to get publicity about a new injection port for diabetics called the i-Port Advance. It is a plastic “nipple” that adheres to the skin surface. That port provides a reusable septum to insert insulin needles for up to three days. It is a big advance in comfort for diabetics who might otherwise have to poke needles directly into their skin up to four times a day, or twelve times as often. You can watch a YouTube video about using the i-Port Advance. Back in December 2008 the U.S. Sunday-newspaper supplement magazine, Parade, had an article about how The I-Port is a Long-Awaited Breakthrough.

There was another fear survey covering the UAE and Saudi Arabia reported in 2010 which was done by Crest toothpaste. It ranked public speaking 3rd.

An injection syringe image came from Armin Kübelbeck at Wikimedia Commons.