On June 28, 2023 there is an article from the TASS news agency titled Russians reveal their greatest fears – poll which listed the top ten from a telephone survey of 1600 adults by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). 30% are afraid of heights, 28% are afraid of snakes, and 24% are afraid of water (particularly deep water). 18% are afraid of dentists, or insects, or spiders. And 12% are afraid of either enclosed spaces or microorganisms, bacteria, or viruses. 11% are afraid of public speaking, and 10% are afraid of flying (on a plane).
Another article that day by Mohammed Ali at Urdupoint titled Poll shows fear of heights as Russia’s most common phobia added additional details. 9% of Russians are afraid of either crowds or thunder and lightning. 8% are afraid of blood, 5% are afraid of the dark, 3% are afraid of clowns, and just 2% are afraid of death. Thirteen other items were feared by less than 2%: birds, dogs, dolls, fire, God, hunger, loneliness, mice, natural disasters, other people, poverty, speed, and war.
A horizontal bar chart of those sixteen fears is shown above. (Click on it to see a larger view).
The previous day there was yet another article at the Teller Report titled VTsIOM: Russians over 60 are more likely than young people to be afraid of bacteria and viruses. I was somewhat frustrated that since I don’t read Russian I may be missing a comprehensive article or press release from VTsIOM with all the aforementioned results and perhaps more.
How do these fears compare with those found for comparable fears in a recent U. S. Survey? Another bar chart shows the nine results from the 2022 Chapman Survey of American Fears, which I have blogged about on October 22, 2022 in a post titled The Chapman Survey of American Fears has a forest with 92 fears. Public speaking was feared by 34% of adults and only ranked 46th.
Let’s compare results. First, 30% of Russians fear heights, as do 30.6% of Americans. Second, 28% of Russians fear snakes, and 27.2% of Americans fear reptiles. There are no American results for water or dentists. 18% of Russians fear insects or spiders, versus 23.8% of Americans who fear the combination Insects/Arachnids. 12% of Russians fear enclosed spaces, versus a larger 21.7% of Americans. 12% of Russians fear microorganisms, bacteria, and viruses versus a slightly larger 14.5% of Americans who fear germs. 11% of Russians fear public speaking, which is over three times less than the 34% of Americans who do. 10% of Russians fear flying, versus a slightly larger 12.4% of Americans. There are no American results for either clowns or darkness. 8% of Russians fear blood, versus 5.8 % of Americans. Finally, and most differently just 2% of Russians fear death versus 29% of Americans who fear dying.
The ratio (results for Americans divided by those for Russians) is shown in a third horizontal bar chart. Results range from 14.5 times for death and 3.09 for public speaking to just 0.73 for blood.
We should probably take these Russian results with a large grain of salt. An article by Yekaterina Pachikova and Nadezhda Kolobaeva at The Insider on June 28, 2023 is titled The silent nation: Why wartime opinion polls cannot be trusted.
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