In the tenth Chapman Survey of American Fears for 2024, public speaking only was ranked #59 of 85 fears at 29.0%

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday Chapman University released results from their tenth Chapman Survey of American Fears, which asked 1008 adults about 85 fears. There is an article by Carly Murphy on Chapman News for October 23, 2024 titled Corruption, Nuclear Threats, and Economic Instability Dominate National Fears in 2024.

 

Public speaking was not in the Top Ten, or even the Top Fifty. It only was ranked #59 of 85 fears at 29.0%. The most common fear was Corrupt Government Officials at 65.2%, followed by People I Love Becoming Seriously Ill at 58.4%, Cyberterrorism at 58.3%, People I Love Dying at 57.8%, and Russia Using Nuclear Weeapons at 55.8%.

 

The main web page is Fear Survey 2024. There is a pdf article which discusses the Key Findings and Top Ten Fears. And there is another pdf article with a list of fears ranked by percent. There is a third 106 page pdf article with the detailed Methodology. When I checked the percent list against the methodology, I found one typo for Becoming Seriously Ill – listed as 42.0% where it instead should be 43.5%.  

 

As usual, the fears were listed as the sum for Very Afraid and Afraid. If we add the 36.6% for Slightly Afraid, we get a total of 65.7%, which is still about ten percent below the often-quoted 75% for fear of public speaking.

 

The sign was modified from a picture at the Library of Congress.