About a fifth of American adults with a very high fear of public speaking may not benefit from Toastmasters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People commonly advise those with a fear of public speaking to join a Toastmasters International club in order to get over it. But those with a very high level of fear (a severe anxiety level) might not benefit, and will drop out quickly.

 

There is an excellent 14-minute YouTube video by Dr. Cheryl Mathews at SpeakCalmHQ on November 25, 2024 titled DO NOT Go To Toastmasters If This Applies To You. She says you instead will need gradual desensitization exercises.

 

And she suggests you take a public speaking anxiety test first. Back on December 5, 2009 I blogged about it in a post titled Do you have a high level of anxiety about public speaking?

 

The 2024 Chapman Survey of American Fears looked at four levels of fear for public speaking. 11.9% were Very Afraid, 17.2% were Afraid, 36.6% were Slightly Afraid, and 34.3% were Not Afraid. The fraction who are very afraid is 11.9/65.7 = 0.181 or less than one in five. This fraction is as follows for all ten surveys, based on data in my June 1, 2025 blog post:

 

2014     0.142

2015     0.190

2016     0.151

2017     0.171

2018     0.180

2019     0.200

2020/1  0.186

2022     0.202

2023     0.160

2024     0.181  

Mean    0.176

 

The cartoon of a scared man was adapted from this one at OpenClipArt.