Want to look silly in the first paragraph of your marketing article?

The first paragraph of an article on March 5, 2020 from Penna Powers at the KSL web site titled Utah CEO explains single trait that can lead to career goal success by their CEO Mike Brian stated that:

“…Research from Chapman University found 26% of Americans have a fear of public speaking. In several research projects conducted over decades, the number one fear for most people is public speaking.”

But when you check his reference to the 2018 Chapman Survey of American Fears, you will find that fear of public speaking ranked #59 rather than #1. As shown above in a graph from my January 27, 2020 blog post titled Why do we often hear about the 2014 Chapman Survey of American Fears, but not about the other four done in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018? it also ranked far below #1 in the previous three years. Oops! Item #76 on the list was Being fooled by 'fake' news!

Similarly, the first sentence of an article by Pearl Kim on March 3, 2020 at GovLoop titled 5 best resources to enhance your public speaking was:

"According to the 2018 Chapman Survey of American Fears, public speaking ranked higher than reptiles, large volcanic eruptions, and technology that people don't understand."