AMERICA’S WORST FEARS

Chapman University has released it’s 2015 survey of America’s Top Fears. 1,541 American adults were surveyed about various fears. In general, this is what people are afraid of, on a scale of 1 to 4:
1. Man-Made Disasters 2.15
2. Technology 2.07
3. Government 2.06
4. Environment 1.97
5. Personal Future 1.95
6. Natural Disasters 1.95
7. Crime 1.72
8. Personal Anxieties 1.63
9. Daily Life 1.51
10. Judgment of Others 1.31

Here is the List of All Fears:
Fear % of Americans Afraid or Very Afraid
Corruption 58.0
Cyber-terrorism 44.8
Corporate Tracking of Personal Data 44.6
Terrorist Attack 44.4
Government Tracking of Personal Data 41.4
Bio-warfare 40.9
Identity Theft 39.6
Economic Collapse 39.2
Running out of Money 37.4
Credit Card Fraud 36.9
Gun Control 36.5
War 35.8
Obamacare 35.7
Illness 34.4
Pandemic 34.3
Nuclear Attack 33.6
Reptiles 33.0
Meltdown 32.3
Civil Unrest 32.0
Tornados 31.4
Global Warming 30.7
Grid attack 29.8
Illegal Immigration 29.7
Drought 29.4
Robots Replacing Workforce 28.9
Public Speaking 28.4
Property Damage 27.7
Heights 27.4
Pollution of rivers and streams 26.9
Earthquake 26.7
Drunk Driver 26.5
Flood 26.5
Hurricane 26.4
Trusting Artificial Intelligence to do work 25.8
Insects 25.5
Blizzard 25.0
Overpopulation 24.0
Robots 23.9
Unemployment 23.8
Artificial Intelligence 22.2
Break ins Crime 22.2
Loneliness 22.0
Dying 21.9
Theft 21.6
Water 21.0
Drones 20.4
Claustrophobia 19.9
Volcano 19.7
Aging 19.6
Ponzi Schemes and other financial crimes 19.0
Technology I don’t understand 19.0
Needles 18.5
Whites no longer majority 18.2
Dying 16.8
Germs 16.5
Mass Shooting 16.4
Walking Along at Night 16.4
Murder by a stranger 16.0
Mugging Crime 15.8
Police Brutality 15.4
Flying 15.2
Rape by a stranger 14.5
Gangs Crime 14.1
Whooping Cough 13.5
Kidnapping 13.0
Mammals (Dogs, rats or other animals) 12.9
Measles 12.7
Stalking 12.7
Dismissed by Others 12.5
Blood 12.2
Hate Crime 12.2
Weight 11.4
Rape by someone you know 11.3
Murder by someone you know 10.9
Ridicule 10.6
Romantic Rejection 10.4
Expressing Opinion 9.7
Ghosts 9.7
Talking to Stranger 9.7
Gossip 9.6
Dark 9.3
Appearance 8.7
Zombies 8.5
Vaccines 8.4
Clowns 6.8
Age 5.9
Race 5.6
Gender 4.5
Dress 4.2
* So, Americans are about 14,000 percent afraid of things.
* The top item ought to be fear of having your anti-anxiety meds cut off.
* I’m afraid of this list getting even longer.
* People fear zombies more than clowns? Man, you clowns have got to start trying harder.
* What about fear of another “Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating People” special?
* I blame the schools not letting kids play tag.
* How about fear of Monday mornings?
* Darn, we’ve got so many things to be afraid of we forgot about Planet X.
* Remember Donald Rumsfeld’s excellent point: There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.
* Ironically, Donald Rumnsfeld used to be one of the things we were afraid of.
* And we definitely knew that.