Halloween is known as the spooky season, and while skeletons and haunted houses can be frightening, it’s other things that keep Americans awake at night. According to a poll conducted by Chapman University in Orange County, California, while some of the most common fears expressed by Americans shifted during the coronavirus pandemic, others remained constant.
The Survey of American Fears asked 1,035 adults in the United States about their level of fear across 95 distinct possibilities. For the sixth year in a row, “corruption of government officials” topped the list, with 79.6 percent of respondents stating they were “afraid” or “very afraid” of the potential. The worry of “people I love for dying” jumped from fifth to second place in 2019 to 58.5 percent in 2020/21. The worry of “people I love with becoming seriously ill” fell one notch to fourth place, making room for the newly introduced choice of “a loved one contracting COVID-19.” While fear of illness and death climbed but did not enter the top 10, fear of pandemics and epidemics jumped from 31st in 2019 to 6th in the most current study.
Fear of “widespread civil unrest” surged even higher in the context of widespread Black Lives Matter protests that became violent in some U.S. cities, jumping from rank 87 in 2019 to number 5 in 2020/21. Surprisingly, growing fears of COVID, economic collapse, and civil unrest dropped climate change anxieties down from ninth to thirteenth place, with only 48.7 percent of Americans citing them. Pollution fear, which had previously placed higher than climate change fear, has also dropped down the list.
Fears associated with Halloween were less common. Only 9.3 percent of Americans were terrified of zombies and ghosts, while 5.6 percent were afraid of clowns. The most common fear that may be provoked during a Halloween party is that of spiders, which is shared by 22.8 percent of Americans.
US adults are less scared of COVID than Corrupt government officials
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