Public speaking is not the most common fear for adults in British Columbia

Back in June there was a poll about fears. Insights West conducted online interviews with 802 adult residents of British Columbia, between May 31 and June 3. They reported detailed results on June 17, 2016 in an article titled Terrorism, heights, snakes are top fears in British Columbia. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 per cent.

Residents were asked about the following 26 fears (shown here in alphabetical order):

Birds
Being the victim of a crime
Blood
Clowns
Confined Spaces
Crowds
Darkness
Death
Dogs
Fish
Flying (Airplane/Helicopter)
Germs
Ghosts
Heights
Insects
Mice
Needles/Getting shots
Nuclear war
Open spaces
Open water (Ferry/Boat/
Public speaking
Snakes
Spiders
Strangers
Terrorism
Water/drowning

For each category, they were asked to choose how afraid they were on a scale from 1 to 4 where (0 = not sure, or don’t know):

1]   Not Afraid At All
2]   Not Too Afraid
3]   Somewhat Afraid
4]  Very Afraid

A bar chart shows results for Very Afraid. (Click on it to see a larger, clearer view). Terrorism (16%) was the most common fear, followed by nuclear war (15%) and snakes (14%). Heights and spiders (11%) tied for fourth place, while Being the victim of a crime and Public speaking (10%) tied for fifth place.

A second bar chart shows results for Somewhat Afraid. Heights (29%) was the most common fear, and Being the victim of a crime (28%) was second. Terrorism (27%) was third. For fourth place (26%) there was a three-way tie between Confined spaces, Public speaking, and Snakes. For fifth place (22%) there was another three-way tie between Death, Nuclear war, and Spiders.

 A third bar chart shows results for Not Too Afraid. Strangers (38%) was the most common fear. Germs (37%) was second, and Being the victim of a crime (36%) was third. Death (35%) was fourth. For fifth place (33%) there was a three-way tie between Terrorism, Water/drowning, and Insects. For sixth place (32%) there was another three-way tie between Confined spaces, Heights, and Public speaking.

A fourth bar chart shows results for Not Afraid At All. Open spaces (86%) was the most common unfeared item, and Fish (85%) was second. Birds (81%) was third, Clowns (79%) was fourth, and for fifth (69%) there was a tie between Ghosts and Open water (ferry/boat/ship). 31% had no fear of Public Speaking or Snakes.

 
























A fifth bar chart shows results for the sum of Very Afraid and Somewhat Afraid. This sum was reported in the first online article about this survey on June 14th titled Terror attacks top list of B.C. residents’ fears, poll shows. Terrorism (43%) was the most common fear followed by a tie for second place (40%) between Heights and Snakes. Being the victim of a crime (38%) was third, Nuclear war (37%) was fourth, and Public speaking (36%) was fifth.

A sixth bar chart shows results for the grand sum of Very Afraid, Somewhat Afraid, and Not Too Afraid. Terrorism (76%) was the most common fear, and Being the victim of a crime (74%) was second. Heights (72%) was third, and there was a tie for fourth (68%) between Public speaking and Snakes. For fifth (65%) there was another tie between Nuclear war and Death. 

We commonly see claims that more people fear Public speaking than Death. This survey didn’t find that for Not Too Afraid, where Death (35%) was fourth - while for sixth place (32%) there was a  three-way tie between Confined spaces, Heights, and Public speaking.

For Very Afraid, Public speaking (10%) tied for fifth place, and Death (8%) was sixth. For Somewhat Afraid, there was a three-way tie for fourth place (26%) between Confined spaces, Public speaking, and Snakes. For fifth place (22%) there was another three-way tie between Death, Nuclear war, and Spiders.