Spouting nonsense - A YouTube video from Amrez with fairy tales about two surveys on public speaking fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an awful seven-minute YouTube video from Amrez on July 6, 2025 titled Why Do People Fear Public Speaking More Than Death which begins as follows:

 

“Why do people fear public speaking more than death? If you’re one of these people, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Hi, I make questionnaire videos and today we’re going to answer this question. Why do so many people fear public speaking more than death?

 

First let’s look at some stats. A survey conducted by the polling company Gallup asked 1,000 Americans what their greatest fear was. They had these options: death, public speaking, heights, spiders, dogs, flying, illness, old age, running, losing a loved one or other. And guess what was the top response? Public speaking. Yep, 40 percent of respondents chose public speaking over death.

 

A survey conducted by Chapman University in 2017 asked students to choose up to three fears from a list of 54 phobias. These were common fears like fear of commitment, fear of driving, fear of failure, etc. And guess what was the most commonly selected fear? Yep, glossophobia: fear of speaking in front of people. Okay, so the stats don’t lie…”

 

The rest of it is not quite as awful.

 

But the article by Geoffrey Brewer at Gallup News Service on March 19, 2001 is titled Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears and is subtitled Public speaking, heights, and being closed in small spaces also create fear in many Americans. It discussed surveys done in both 1998 and 2001, neither of which included death. In 2001 40% feared public speaking (versus 51% for snakes).

 

For 2001 the list of 13 fears and their percentages are as follows:

 

Snakes: 51%

Public speaking in front of an audience: 40%

Heights: 36%

Being closed in a small space: 34%

Spiders and insects: 27%

Needles and getting shots: 21%

Mice: 20%

Flying on an airplane: 18%

Crowds: 11%

Dogs: 11%

Thunder and lightning: 11%

Going to the doctor: 9%

The dark: 5%

 

And for 1998 the list of 13 fears is as follows:

 

Snakes: 56%

Public speaking in front of an audience: 45%

Heights: 41%

Being closed in a small space: 36%

Spiders and insects: 34%

Mice: 26%

Needles and getting shots: 21%

Flying on an airplane: 20%

Thunder and lightning: 17%

Going to the doctor: 12%

Crowds: 11%

Dogs: 10%

The dark: 8%

 

The 2017 Chapman Survey asked a national sample of American adults rather than just students about eighty individual fears, not 54 phobias. Their results are summarized by a blog post on October 11, 2017 that is titled America’s Top Fears 2017. The most commonly selected fear was Corrupt Government Officials at 74.5%. Public speaking was #52 at just 20.0%. I blogged about it on October 14, 2017 in a post titled What do the most Americans fear? The fourth Chapman Survey on American Fears and being innumerate. There were really 81 fears, and a lot of the percentages listed in the Chapman blog post did not quite match their raw data.  

 

That Amrez video is telling us fairy tales about those surveys. I have awarded them a Spoutly for spouting nonsense.