Corrupt government officials (60.1%) was the most common fear in the ninth 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears. Public speaking only was ranked #53 (28.7%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In October Chapman University reported results from their ninth 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears. That survey of 97 fears on 1014 adults was done by SSRS March 27 to April 4, 2023, and the margin of error is 3.7%. They asked about four fear levels: Very Afraid, Afraid, Slightly Afraid, and Not Afraid. Details are in an April 2023 American Fears Survey Methodology Report which can be downloaded as a 96-page pdf file. That report mentions a fifth reply, a Web blank that is when people skipped answering a question. That reply appeared for fifteen questions: nine at 0.1%, four at 0.2%, and two at 0.4%. Those web blanks did not significantly affect the results.   

 

The Chapman University web page also provides links for pdf files with a Top Ten List, a Percent List, an Alphabetical list, and Chapman Survey of American Fears 2022 and 2023 Compared. They reported the percentage sum for Very Afraid plus Afraid. Corrupt government officials (60.1%) was the most common fear, and public speaking only was ranked #53 (28.7%)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have prepared a pair of bar charts of that data, the Top Fifty and Bottom Forty-Seven, which are shown above. (Click on them to see an enlarged view). For each entry I show the question number from the Methodology Report.

 

Corrupt government officials was the most common fear for all eight surveys where questions were asked consistently. (That was not the case for the first one in 2014).

 

The comparison of 2022 and 2023 shows that five new questions about China were added, and replies were in the Top Thirty:

 

China spying on the US Q19f #13 45.7%

Military conflict between the United States and China Q19h #15 45.3%

China stealing US technology Q19e #19 44.1%

China’s influence abroad reducing US power in the world Q19g #27 40.7%

China’s economy overtaking the US economy Q19d #30 40.0%  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For eleven of the questions there was another reply for a significant percentage, but these results were not noted in the fear lists by Chapman. As shown above, for eight questions another reply was that I don’t know who/what this is. And for three more, another reply was that Doesn’t apply to me. They are shown above in a pair of tables.            

 

I have blogged a lot about results from the Chapman surveys. Some examples are for the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 2020/21, and 2022 ones. There are other metrics for reporting the survey results, which will be discussed later.

 

 

The cartoon was adapted from one at Puck magazine on September 5, 1906 at Wikimedia Commons.