Research for a blog post should go much deeper than a puddle from a rainstorm

At the Ethos3 blog on July 24, 2019 there was a post by Amy Boone titled Summoning the courage to speak. Her second paragraph says:

"We talk a lot about fear of public speaking at Ethos3 because, well, lots of people are afraid of it. It is nearly always in the top 5 on any given list of fears. Citing research from Chapman University, The Washington Post has even published it at the top of the list in recent years with over 25% of people surveyed saying they are afraid of public speaking."

Chapman University’s Surveys of American Fears really are about the worst things she could have referenced. It is only their 2014 survey which lists public speaking in the top five. That Washington Post article has a high ranking on Google, and will show up in any superficial search. But, as I blogged about in an October 27, 2014 post titled What do the most Americans fear? The Chapman Survey on American Fears and the press release copying reflex that survey had questions asked two different ways, so you could not compare all the fears in the survey. The day before the Washington Post article I blogged about just the Chapman Survey results for the 12 Phobias in another post titled Chapman Survey on American Fears includes both zombies and ghosts.

Another four more recent Chapman Surveys, where all the questions were asked in the same way, belie her top five claim. In 2015 public speaking was ranked #26 out of 88 fears, in 2016 it was ranked #33 out of 79 fears, in 2017 it was ranked #52 out of 80 fears, and in 2018 it was ranked #59 of 94 fears. On January 5, 2019 I discussed the 2017 and 2018 surveys in a post titled How shallow research will destroy your credibility. On October 14, 2016 I blogged about how In the 2016 Chapman Survey of American Fears public speaking was ranked 33rd out of 79 fears.

Carol M. Highsmith’s image of a horse drinking from a rainstorm puddle came from the Library of Congress.