A new ‘Fear Survey’ shows what scares people the most in 2017

Turns out, when it comes to fear, people are more rational than you'd think.

Researchers at the Chapman University put together a Fear Survey, which kicked off in 2014, to see what people were most afraid of, and how those fears changed year-on-year. The results of the 2017 survey is taken from a random sample of 1,207 adults from across the United States who were asked their level of fear about eighty different fears across a huge variety of topics ranging from crime, the government, the environment, disasters, personal anxieties, technology and many others. In terms of "obvious" answers, the first general fear on the list is Heights, which comes in at 34th place. After that we've got Sharks (41st), Spiders (50th), Public Speaking (52nd), Flying (72nd), Zombies (78th, and not a real thing, but the way), and Ghosts (79th, which at least have a stronger argument for possibly existing than zombies do). Even 2017's fear du jour, Clowns, doesn't rock up until 76th, just one spot below Your Significant Other Cheating On You. Which will give you a good indication of what the ten actual scariest things are for people in 2017:

1. Corrupt Government Officials
2. Poor Heathcare
3. Pollution of Oceans, Rivers and Lakes
4. Pollution of Drinking Water
5. Not having enough money for the future
6. High medical bills
7. A third world war
8. Global Warming / Climate Change
9. North Korea using weapons of mass destruction
10. Air Pollution

And it turns out that, in general, people are just getting more and more afraid of things. From 2014 to 2016, most of the people surveyed admitted to just one item that they were "afraid or very afraid" of. In 2017, that number jumped to five for the majority of those surveyed. Additionally, the fear of Corrupt Government Officials has remained the biggest scary thing in the world for the last two years, but the amount of people who fear has jumped from 2016 (60.6%) to 2017 (74.5%). We wonder why that might be... (cough cough Trump cough)