Outdated and incorrect statistics about our fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have a daily Google alert on the phrase “public speaking.” Recently it provided links to web pages about a training course by Mangates in both Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand. (Similar descriptions are at web sites for training in San Antonio and South Africa). Two opening sentences in the first paragraph of their description say:    

 

“According to a 1973 survey by the Sunday Times of London, 41% of people list public speaking as their biggest fear. Forget small spaces, darkness, and spiders, standing up in front of a crowd and talking is far more terrifying for most people.”

 

But that all just is rubbish. The description seems to have come from a Public Speaking course package sold for $499 by Corporate Training Materials (a division of Global Courseware, located in Dover Delaware).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on October 27, 2009 I blogged about The 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from? The survey wasn’t done by the Sunday Times. Their article reported on results from R. H. Bruskin Associates in the U.S. As shown above in a chart, speaking before a group was the most common of the fourteen fears people were asked about. They were not asked about small spaces or spiders (but were asked about insects and bugs). There is a difference between whether more people are afraid, and if people are more afraid (the latter question must be answered via a fear survey schedule).  

 

Module 4 of the Corporate Training Materials course is titled Fleshing It Out and it has subheadings of Identifying Appropriate Sources, Establishing Credibility, and The Importance of Citations. They flunked all three subheadings, and didn’t do what they said. On April 25, 2012 I blogged about Why do people still refer to a 39 year old survey? and pointed out that as of the 2010 less than half the people now around (median age 37.2 years) could have been asked questions in 1973.

 

The cartoon was adapted from one titled Tomboy Taylor Doesn’t Seem to Give a Rap Where She Hides in a 1918 book Cartoons by Fontaine Fox – Second Book at the Internet Archive.