Do as many as 4 in 10 Americans fear public speaking? Not really!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Medium on August 15, 2021 there is an article by John Bowe titled Do You Hate Public Speaking? Here’s Why. His first paragraph says:

 

“If you hate or even fear public speaking, you’re not alone. According to numerous studies, fear of public speaking (a.k.a. glossophobia) affects as many as four in ten Americans. And people around the world appear to be no less speech-anxious than we.”

 

Does public speaking fear affect up to 40% of Americans? Not really. On July 2, 2021 I blogged about how an Article by John Bowe says 15 to 30 percent have speech anxiety rather than the baseless 74 percent he previously had claimed. In that post I discussed 22 surveys (which I had previously blogged about) where the range for fear of public speaking ran from 17% to 57%. Eight of those surveys had fear percentages over 40%.

 

Do people in other countries have the same or higher percentages for fear of public speaking than Americans? Mostly they do not. On April 9, 2012 I blogged about how a Poll by Reader’s Digest Canada found fear of public speaking wasn’t ranked first in 15 of 16 countries surveyed. That poll listed percentages for men and women, and for both the United States was fourth. Results for women were as follows:

   

France 41%

Germany 37%

Australia 28%

United States 27%

Canada 27%

Malaysia 24%

South Africa 24%  

United Kingdom 21%

India 20%

Mexico 20%

Brazil 16%

Philippines 18%

Netherlands 14%

Russia 14%

Spain 11%

China 6%

 

And results for men were:

 

France 40%

Malaysia 29%

India 28%

United States 22%

Australia 21%

Spain 18%

Philippines 15%

Russia 15%

South Africa 13%  

United Kingdom 13%

Germany 12%

Mexico 12%

Brazil 11%

Canada 10%

Netherlands 8%

China 6%

 

Perhaps John should just say that a lot of people everywhere have some fear of public speaking.