Most Americans are not terrified of public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An article by Elizabeth Roper Marcus at Psychology Today on December 2, 2021 titled Getting past the terror of public speaking opens by claiming that:

 

“Like most people, I was terrified of public speaking.”

 

Above the text, the first item on her list of three key points is:

 

“Most people are terrified of public speaking, so they avoid it.”

 

Assuming most people think the same way as you do is a dangerous generalization. As shown above via a Venn diagram, going up from what you think to what Americans think, and then even to what people in general think is quite a leap. The Merriam Webster dictionary definition for most is:

 

“greatest in quantity, extent or degree - or the majority of.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Americans there is survey data from seven editions of the Chapman Survey of American Fears we can use to assess that claim, as shown above in a bar chart. They reported percentages for four different levels of fear: Very Afraid, Afraid, Slightly Afraid, and Not Afraid. For Very Afraid (which roughly describes the terrified) the range is only from 8.8% to 12.8% (average 10.6%). That’s a long way below 50%. Even the sum for Very Afraid plus Afraid falls far below 50%; we have to add in Slightly Afraid to get a majority.     

 

How afraid are Americans of public speaking? Not very! We can calculate a Fear Score statistic (on a scale from 1=Not Afraid, 2=Slightly Afraid, 3=Afraid, 4=Very Afraid) based on those percentages. In a blog post on October 30, 2015 titled According to the 2015 Chapman Survey of American Fears, adults are less than Afraid of federal government Corruption and only Slightly Afraid of Public Speaking, I discussed the calculation which is simply as follows:

 

Fear Score = [ 1x(% for Not Afraid) +  2x(% for Slightly Afraid) 
+ 3x(% for Afraid) + 4x(% for Very Afraid)]/100  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above in a second bar chart, the average fear score is 1.967, which is almost exactly the 2.0 for just Slightly Afraid.  

 

Otherwise Elizabeth’s article is very useful. She talks about eroding the fear by starting small, keeping it simple, and repeating (while slowly upping the challenge). One way to do that is to join a local Toastmasters club.   

 

That article also is a post at her ELizWrites blog on December 7, 2021 titled Worth the terror.