Zombie fear statistics just keep stumbling back

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superficial research is widespread. One consequence is zombie fear statistics that come back again and again, especially before Halloween. On March 22, 2019 I blogged about An apparently authoritative statistic about fear of public speaking that really lacks any support. In that post I had quoted nonsense from Statistic Brain. It showed up again on October 14, 2022 in an article by Elisha Gul at Weshare titled 41+ Public speaking statistics you should know (as #28), and on October 29, 2022 in another article by Peter Weltman at Fast Company titled How I manage my fear of public speaking with comedy that opened by claiming:

 

“Public speaking is frightening. The National Social Anxiety Center places public speaking as the most common phobia behind death, spiders, and heights. Public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, affects an astonishing 73% of the population.”

 

On October 12, 2020 I blogged about Do 77% of Americans fear public speaking? No! That percentage described stage fright in Swedes who also had social anxiety disorder. And then, on January 29, 2022 I blogged about A zombie statistic that 77% of the general population fears public speaking. That nonsense turned up again both on September 17, 2022 in an article by Lawrence Haywood at AhaSlides titled The fear of public speaking: 15 tips to beat glossophobia in 2023, and on October 11, 2022 in a post by Michael Lee at the Prezi Blog titled Best practices to speak publicly without freaking out.

 

The zombie silhouette was adapted from Openclipart.

 

 

Update November 10, 2022

 

The second sentence in an article by Andrea Heuston at Forbes on November 10, 2022 titled

Three techniques you can implement immediately to help you enjoy public speaking claimed:

 

“Studies have found that around 77% of the world’s population fears public speaking—it’s so common that it has its own name, ‘glossophobia.’ “

 

 

A zombie statistic that 77% of the general population fears public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Elizabeth Pratt at VeryWellHealth on January 24, 2022 titled What is Glossophobia? The Fear of Public Speaking. Her second sentence says that:

 

“Public speaking causes feelings of anxiety in roughly 77% of the general population, and it can sometimes hinder a person's day-to-day life. (Ref. 2)”

 

That percentage is nonsense but it keeps returning like a zombie. I blogged about it on October 12, 2020 in a post titled Do 77% of Americans fear public speaking? No! That percentage described stage fright in Swedes who also had social anxiety disorder. I had found that nonsense mentioned in an article at VeryWellMind on April 12, 2020 which since had been updated (with the same error) on July 16, 2021.   

 

The zombie image was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.

 

Halloween Statistic - More Americans fear public speaking than fear zombies

Contrary to Doug Savage’s October 26th Savage Chickens cartoon about Zombie Stress (shown above), more Americans fear public speaking than fear zombies. Both the 2014 and 2015 Chapman University Surveys on American Fears found this. Using the sum of percentages for Very Afraid and Afraid, in 2014 Public Speaking was 25.3% while Zombies was 8.9%, and in 2015 Public Speaking was 28.4% while zombies was 8.5%. 

A bar chart shows all the data for the four fear levels and refused (or don’t know) from the 2014 survey. (Click on it to see a larger, clearer view). For three fear levels of Very Afraid (8.8% vs 3.6%), Afraid (16.5% vs 5.3%) and Somewhat Afraid (36.6% vs 9.3%) more feared public speaking (yellow) than zombies (blue). Note that 77.8% were Not Afraid of zombies, so the majority of adults are willing to watch a television show or movie about the walking dead.

Another bar chart shows all the data for the four fear levels from the 2015 survey.. For three fear levels of Very Afraid (11.8% vs 4.7%), Afraid (16.6% vs 3.8%) and Slightly  Afraid (33.6% vs 9.0%) more again feared public speaking than zombies. If you want to use this as a Startling Statistic for Halloween, be careful NOT to point out that public speaking only was ranked 26th and zombies ranked 83rd.

If you are looking for a Startling Statistic for year round use, you might say instead that more Americans fear public speaking than dying or dying alone. Detailed results for those questions from the 2015 Chapman Survey are shown above. Again, be careful NOT to point out that public speaking was ranked 26th while dying ranked 43rd and dying alone ranked 54th.

Anyone with an ax to grind (and perhaps use) can find a pair of things to compare on the 2015 Chapman Survey’s Complete List of Fears. Two headline examples are that Atlantic magazine had (sic) Americans are more afraid of robots than death, while Red Alert Politics had More Americans are afraid of Obamacare than dying.