Why did a keynote speaker overestimate his research skills?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There is an article by John Eades at Learnloft on June 25, 2026 titled Why Most Leaders Overestimate Their Presentation Skills which opens by stating a startling ‘statistic’ that: 

“Fear is real, and there are a couple of common things people fear.

A survey revealed that people’s two biggest fears are public speaking and death.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld landed a joke about the survey when he said, ‘Most people would rather be in the casket than giving the eulogy.’

It’s funny because it’s true. Most people despise the idea of public speaking.”

John did such superficial research that he confused a joke with a 1973 survey where death actually was seventh. Both are shown above. And that misquote is a paraphrase of what Jerry said in 1993. Back on April 8, 2018 I blogged about Misquoting Jerry Seinfeld and inflating fear five times.

 

He also has a 9-minute YouTube video at The Leadership Lens on June 25, 2026 titled Most Leaders Think They’re Good Presenters. They’re Not. Both the article and video have some useful content:

 

“The Three Types of Presenters

 

Since leadership is more art than science, leaders can be introverted or extroverted. They are women and men. They are quiet and loud. However, after watching leaders across industries, most fall into one of three categories when presenting.

 

The Informer

The Informer knows their content cold. Their slides are detailed, their data is accurate, and their presentation is thorough. However, they confuse information transfer with communication. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, but it can be boring. The audience might even learn something. Their presentations are forgettable, not because they couldn’t be better or because their content is weak, but nothing makes it stick.  

 

The Rambler

The Rambler has real experience and genuine passion. When it lands, it’s magnetic. But without structure, the audience works too hard to follow. They leave inspired by the energy but unclear on the point. The Rambler’s biggest blind spot is thinking passion is enough. While it’s better than someone who doesn’t care, passion without structure is just noise with enthusiasm.

 

The Inspirer

The Inspirer knows their content and their audience. They don’t present at people, they present for them. They use story, tension, and intentional moments to connect ideas to emotions. They take chances by using authenticity to show their true self. The audience doesn’t just remember a few of the things they said – they remember how it made them feel.”

 

 

A claim about public speaking that wasn’t really in the 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Kathryn Janicek at LinkedIn Pulse on May 24, 2026 titled Your Body Is Sabotaging Your Speech Before You Say a Word. In her section titled The Part Nobody Prepares For she claimed:

 

“According to the Chapman University Survey of American Fears (2023), public speaking anxiety ranks among the most prevalent fears in American adults - above financial concerns and job loss for a significant portion of those surveyed.”

 

Why was she vague about the exact percentage and rank for the allegedly prevalent fear of public speaking? The survey has a web page with list of 97 fears ranked by percent. Public speaking was feared by 28.7% and only was ranked #53, which is not even in the upper half. There was not a question about financial concerns; Economic/financial collapse was #2 at 54.7% - far above public speaking. And there was not a question about job loss; Computers replacing people in the workforce was #47 at 31.6% and Being unemployed was #74 at 24.9%. On October 20, 2023 I blogged about how Corrupt government officials (60.1%) was the most common fear in the ninth 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears. Public speaking was only ranked #53 (28.7%).

 

I also tried Google searching on the phrases “financial concerns” and “job loss” along with “Chapman survey” but came up empty.

 

But why didn’t she look at the most recent 2025 survey? On October 23, 2025 I blogged about how In the eleventh Chapman Survey of American Fears for 2025, public speaking was only ranked #46 of 67 fears at 33.7%.

 

 

Two more silly claims that 95% of the world population fears public speaking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I get extremely irritated when I read claims that almost everyone fears public speaking. At Facebook on June 1, 2026 there is a post from Manish Gupta which states that:

 

“Around 95% of the world’s population has the fear of Public Speaking. It also means that only 5% have the courage to stand up in front of a crowd. Do you want to join the 5% brigade? Do you want to be a part of the select few who walk around confidently with this skill? Do you want to master this one skill which can do wonders in your life? If yes, then do call us right away!”

 

Also, in a 2022 book by Peter J. Copeland titled How to Overcome Work Stress: An Office Survival Guide it is claimed that:

 

“In fact, statistics show that some degree of fear/nervousness in public speaking affects about 95% of all speakers.”

 

But those assertions are without any backing, just ipse dixits.

 

On December 1, 2024 I blogged about Does 95% of the population experience public speaking fear? And my answer was no. There are no surveys covering the whole world. And back on December 20, 2016 I blogged about Bursting the overblown claim that 95% of Americans fear public speaking at some level. On October 23, 2025 I posted on how In the eleventh Chapman Survey of American Fears for 2025, public speaking only was ranked #46 of 67 fears at 33.7%. Detailed results from that survey are:

 

Grand Sum for Very Afraid,

Afraid, and Slightly Afraid  68.5%

Sum for Very Afraid

and Afraid                             33.7% 

Very Afraid                            15.5%

Afraid                                     18.1%

Slightly Afraid                       34.9%   

Not Afraid                             31.4%

Web Blank (Don’t Know)      0.1%

 

That Grand Sum is more than 25% lower than the 95% Mr. Gupta claimed. According to the Wikipedia page on Demographics of the United States the 2025 estimated population is 341,784,857. 21.5% are under 18, so 78.5% are over, for an adult population of about 268,300,000 adults. 33.7% of that is about 90,417,000 people who significantly fear public speaking. Or, using the Grand Sum, about 68.5% or 183,790,000 people fear public speaking at some level. Those real numbers are more impressive statistics than overstated percentages.

 

My cartoon was created in PowerPoint from a globe and monkey at OpenClipArt.

 

 

A botched bar chart about conspiracy beliefs from a discussion of the 2025 Chapman Survey of American Fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 20, 2026 I blogged about A botched pie chart about homelessness from a discussion of the 2025 Chapman Survey of American Fears. It was in an article titled Chapman Survey of American Fears 2025 Key Findings.

 

That article has another section titled Conspiracy Theories with a horizontal bar chart created by Gabriella Bartsch, shown above, which I have annotated (in green) based on the data presented in the Methods Report for Q22 on pages 72 to 74. All seven percentages she listed for the sum Agree + Strongly Agree are wrong. They are too low by an average of 3.6%, which is much more than the web blank percentage (Don’t Know) that is 0.6% or less.

 

This graphic should have been edited by a professor to check the math before it was put into an article.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I previously discussed this chart in a post on October 24, 2025 titled An article about key findings from the 11th Chapman Survey of American Fears for 2025 has stumbling student graphics with significant errors, with another bar chart of mine, as shown above.

 

 

A botched pie chart about homelessness from a discussion of the 2025 Chapman Survey of American Fears

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 23, 2025 I blogged about how In the eleventh Chapman Survey of American Fears for 2025, public speaking only was ranked #46 of 67 fears at 33.7%. That survey had some additional questions with four possible agreement levels of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree. Six of them, Q20 in their Methods Report, asked about homeless people. For example, Q20A was:

 

“Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements – Homeless people should be allowed to live on the streets or in tents.”

 

There was an article titled Chapman Survey of American Fears 2025 Key Findings, which has a section on Homelessness that included a miscaptioned pie chart (by Emma Boyd) titled OPINIONS OF HOMLESSNESS POLICY which I have shown above with added annotations.

 

The chart caption claims to show the percent who Strongly Agree or Agree, but really does not. I added the correct percent in green. The sum for all six questions is 372.3%, and the percents she shows were rescaled to add to a hundred - divided by a factor of 3.72. The largest percent, which she placed at the lower left, really is 92.4%, but she instead shows 24.8%.  

 

Also, for pie charts the usual layout is to start with the largest wedge beginning at 12 o’clock and then go clockwise in decreasing order. More careful editing could have caught these problems.

 

 

A recent post on LinkedIn incorrectly claimed that no credible study has ever demonstrated people fear public speaking more than death

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple weeks ago there was a post at LinkedIn from Robert Owen of Mission Viejo, California about Debunking the myth of public speaking fear:

 

“The claim that people fear public speaking more than death is a myth. It traces back to a misunderstanding of a 1973 market research survey known as The Bruskin Report. In that study, 2,543 American adults were asked a simple question: ‘What are you afraid of?’ They selected answers from a list. Forty-one percent chose ‘speaking before a group.’ Nineteen percent chose ‘death.’ The survey didn’t rank these fears. After the 1977 Book of Lists published the results, the idea that people fear public speaking more than death spread like wildfire. Here’s the bottom line: No credible study has ever demonstrated that people fear public speaking more than death.”

 

Percentage results for all fourteen fears in the Bruskin survey were as follows (death was really seventh):

 

Speaking before a group  40.6%

Heights                                 32,0%

Insects and bugs                 22.1%

Financial problems             22.0%

Deep water                          21.5%

Sickness                                18.8%

Death                                    18.7%

Flying                                     18.3%

Loneliness                             13.6%

Dogs                                       11.2%

Driving/riding in a car           8.8%

Darkness                                  7.9%

Elevators                                  7.6%

Escalators                                 4.8%

 

This blog discussed them on October 27, 2009 in my most popular post titled The 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from?

 

Robert is wrong. I can easily name three surveys which found people fear public speaking more than death. (There may be more. Before you can say there is ‘no credible study,’ you would have to do a lot of research.)

 

First, we need to note there are two distinctly different questions. One is how many people fear public speaking, which can be answered by a percentage such as in the Bruskin survey. The other is how much do people fear public speaking, which only can be answered using a fear survey schedule to find a Fear Score on a scale such as from one to four or even ten (as shown above).

 

Back on October 10, 2012 I blogged about how In a 1965 study of university students, fear of public speaking ranked sixth for men and seventh for women. Fear of speaking before a group outranked death, but the death of a loved one came first. And on October 29, 2017 I blogged about What do Americans fear most? Fear Scores from the 2017 Chapman Survey of American Fears. Fear Scores were 2.425 for People I Love Dying, 1.909 for Public Speaking, and 1.852 for Dying. And on September 23, 2025 I blogged about how Public speaking was the most common and greatest fear found by a Croatian survey of ten fears published in April 2023.

  

 

Did a Gallup poll find that Americans feared public speaking more than death? No, not ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some surveys about fear of public speaking have been misquoted repeatedly for many years. There is a post at the SpeakUp PUBLIC SPEAKING PRACTICE blog on April 2, 2026 titled Fear of Public Speaking Is More Common Than You Think. The second paragraph gave a nonworking link and claimed:

 

“A Gallup poll found many Americans reported fearing public speaking more than death.”

 

But that survey actually looked at two surveys from 2001 and 1998 on what more people feared, which is a completely different question than what people feared more. And death was not on those fears lists. The quarter-century old article by Geoffrey Brewer at Gallup News on March 19, 2001 is titled Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears. For 2001 the list of 13 fears and their percentages is 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 and their percentages 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%

 

Another earlier article by Roxine Kee at CollegeInfoGeek on September 17, 2018 titled 5 Tips for Crafting Great Speeches and Presentations stated:

 

“If you’re like most people, you probably would rather die than present in front of a classroom. I’m not exaggerating: in this Gallup poll from 2001, the fear of public speaking is ranked #2, ahead of the fear of death (#6).”

 

There is an undated article by Kathy Varol titled The secret that turned my public speaking anxiety into excitement which also claimed:

 

“A 2001 Gallup poll found that 40% of Americans cited public speaking as their top fear – more than double the number who feared death.”

 

But Kathy confused the Gallup poll with the 1973 Bruskin survey I had blogged about in a post back on October 27, 2009 titled The 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from? It found 40.6% feared speaking while 18.7% feared death.

  

Another undated article from Eileen Hopkins titled Are you afraid to speak in public? said that:

 

“Public speaking is one of the greatest fears people face; in fact, according to a Gallup poll, 40% of people are more scared of giving a speech than they are of dying!

 

Also, on July 18, 2025 I blogged about Spouting nonsense – a YouTube video from Amrez with fairy tales about two surveys on public speaking fears. One was the Gallup article but they incorrectly claimed it included death, illness, old age, running, losing a loved one, or other.  

 

The skull and crossbones cartoon came from here at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Botched statistics on fear of public speaking from an article in the March 2026 Toastmaster magazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by social psychologist Jennifer Fidder on pages 10 and 11 of the March 2026 issue of Toastmaster magazine titled Fix Your Fear of Speaking. She begins with these three paragraphs:

 

“If you’re afraid of public speaking, have no fear – it’s one of the most common phobias. You’ve probably heard the saying that most people fear public speaking more than they fear death. And that’s true to an extent – nearly everyone has an impending fear of death; however, public speaking is something we all face having to do on a regular, even daily, basis.

 

Estimates suggest that around three-quarters of the general population report some level of anxiety about public speaking. An estimated 15 – 30% of them have a formal diagnosis of public speaking anxiety.

 

That fear of public speaking is called glossophobia, and it can prevent you from participating in activities, receiving promotions at work, and even being able to converse individually.”

 

Her first sentence mixes up fear and phobia. As shown above via a Venn Diagram, a phobia is a fear that also is intense, persistent and interfering. Back on December 11, 2013 I blogged about a previous article in a post titled Spouting Nonsense: July 2013 Toastmaster magazine article fumbles fears and phobias.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we discuss fears and surveys, it is important to ask when a survey was done, where it was done, and what level(s) of fear were examined. We don’t need to hear stale old statistics again! There have been eleven Chapman Surveys of American Fears done from 2014 to 2025. They examined four levels of fear, as shown above via a bar chart for public speaking in the 2025 survey.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another bar chart looks at the fear of dying at any level (Very Afraid + Afraid + Slightly Afraid), which only applies to from 49.7% to 66.8% of us - with a mean of 60.5% or about 3 out of 5 of us, and is not anywhere near everyone. But fear of people I love dying (shown in a similar chart) ranges from 73.3% to 86.9% - with a mean of 82.1% or more than 4 out of 5 of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still another bar chart looks at the fear of public speaking at any level - which ranges from 57.9% to 69.2% (with a mean of 63.0%) and quite a bit less than the three-quarters (75%) Jennifer claimed. Yet another bar chart shows the fear of public speaking for the levels of Very Afraid plus Afraid used in Chapman’s press releases (with a mean of just 28.5.%). Back on February 3, 2014 I blogged about Busting a myth – that 75% of people in the world fear public speaking. That ~75% (really 73%) came from back in 1977!

 

And the estimated 15 – 30% for public speaking anxiety appeared in a 2012 review article. I blogged about it in a post back on January 19, 2013 titled A recent review article on public speaking anxiety.

 

Also, Jennifer’s saying that most people fear public speaking more than they fear death is not right. There were two surveys long ago that instead found that more people (but less that 50% of them) feared public speaking than feared death. One was done in 1973, and I blogged about it on October 27, 2009 in the most popular post on this blog titled The 14 Worst Human Fears in 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from? Another was discussed in a post on May 19, 2011 titled America’s Number One Fear: Public Speaking – that 1993 Bruskin-Goldring Survey. 

 

What about in the Chapman surveys? More people feared public speaking (at any level) than dying in 2015 (60.0% vs 49.7%), 2016 (60.2% vs 50.8%), 2017 (57.9% vs 55.0%), 2022 (69.2% vs 66.8%), 2023 (65.0% vs 59.8%), 2024 (65.75 vs 65.0%), and 2025 (68.5% vs 62.3%) while less did in 2018 (58.3% vs 64.4%), 2019 (64.1% vs 66.3%), and 2020/21 (61.7% vs 65.0%).

 

Finally, I don’t think it is useful to refer to the fear of public speaking by the word glossophobia. On May 6, 2022 I posted on Who popularized the word glossophobia? What is a better Plain English alternative? I suggested instead using the term speech fright, as a specific type of stage fright.

 

Superficial research in an article about fear of mass shootings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article with superficial research by James Alan Fox at USA Today on January 14, 2026 titled There’s no mass shooting epidemic, but fear epidemic is real | Opinion. He says (as shown above) that:

 

“Although the frequent claims of a ‘mass shooting epidemic’ are more hyperbole than reality, there truly is an epidemic of fear fueled by the extensive media coverage afforded deadly attacks in schools, churches, restaurants and other public settings.

 

Indeed, the percentage of Americans indicating that public mass shootings are a significant source of worry has nearly tripled, from 16% in 2015 to 44% in 2025, based on the Chapman University Survey of American Fears." 

 

The first data point for fear of a random or mass shooting really should be from 2014 rather than 2015, and be 24.7% - which is 51 percent larger than the 16.4% that Prof. Fox uses. So his comparison would just be an increase of 79% rather than a near tripling.

 

 

  

 

 

And those are only two of eleven data points in those Chapman surveys, as is shown above. When you only use ~18% of the available data, you will get a grossly misleading picture of what really is going on.

 

There also is another article by James Alan Fox in the Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice for July 31, 2023 (Volume 40, number 1) titled Trends in U. S. Mass Shootings: Facts, Fears, and Fatalities. Figure 2 in it is a vertical bar chart showing seven Chapman Survey data points from 2015 to 2022, but it also omits the 2014 data point and instead of listing 47.4% for 2019 (the very highest point!) it repeats the 41.5% from 2018. Also, he reports 28.1% for 2017 when the correct number in the detailed results instead is 30.8%. I discussed this problem in a blog post on October 4, 2017 titled What do the most Americans fear? The fourth Chapman Survey on American Fears, and being innumerate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is fear of a random or mass shooting the greatest fear in the Chapman surveys? No – corrupt government officials are. As shown above in a bar chart, fear of a random or mass shooting ranked from a low of #56 to a high of #22.   

 

 

According to eight Chapman Surveys of American Fears, more adults fear sharks than fear public speaking – but neither is their top fear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Way back on October 27, 2009 I blogged about an often-quoted old survey (where public speaking was the top fear) in a post titled The 14 Worst Human Fears in the 1977 Book of Lists: where did this data really come from? In that post I noted:

 

“The movie Jaws came out in 1975, so by next year I suspect that sharks were ‘top of mind’ and would have made any list of top ten fears.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, starting in 2017, the annual Chapman Survey of American Fears asked about Sharks. As shown above for eight surveys, more people fear them than fear Public Speaking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But, as also is shown above, Corrupt Government Officials were the top fear in ten surveys, and Public Speaking only ranked from #26 to #59.   

 

Cartoons of a shark and speaker came from OpenClipArt.