New Survey Reveals What Americans Fear the Most

As Halloween approaches, horror movies are taking to television screens. But what exactly do Americans fear most? That's a good question. Scientists have created the first comprehensive nationwide study to find out what strikes the most fear into the hearts of Americans.

"What initially lead us into this line of research was our desire to capture this information on a year-over-year basis so we can draw comparisons with what items are increasing in fear as well as decreasing," said Chrostopher Bader, who lead the effort, in a news release. "We learned through this initial survey that we had to phrase the questions according to fears vs. concerns to capture the information correctly, so that is how we present it."

In this case, the researchers conducted a survey that included 1,500 participants from across the nation and from all walks of life. The scientists pared the information down into four basic categories: personal fears, crime, natural disasters and fear factors.

So what did the researchers find? It turns out that the top five things Americans fear the most are walking alone at night, becoming the victim of identity theft, safety on the internet, being the victim of a mass/random shooting and public speaking.

That's not all the researchers discovered, though. When it came to natural disasters, the scientists found that Americans feared tornadoes and hurricanes most, followed by earthquakes, floods, a pandemic or major epidemic and power outages.

The findings reveal a bit more about the fears that American experience. This, in turn, can tell scientists what fears are increasing and decreasing over time.

Want to learn more? Check out the survey for yourself here.