![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761661838_686_2025-top-10.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the second consecutive year, all fears in the Top 10 were reported by more than 50% of respondents. \u201cThis is something we saw for the first time in 2018, after a pretty rapid increase across the board from 2016,\u201d said Chapman researcher Ed Day. \u201cWe were sorry to see it return.\u201d Anticipating a frequently asked question, the survey team noted that fear of public speaking ranked No. 46 (33.7%), right before murder by a stranger (No. 47, 33.5%) and after a devastating hurricane (No. 45, 34.1%).<\/p>\n
Homelessness<\/p>\n
While Americans are frightened by many things and events, most are not fearful of tent camps or homeless people. They report low levels of fear of homeless tent camps (18.3%) and homeless people (11.9%). Surprisingly, respondents were more afraid of strangers (14.6%) than people experiencing homelessness, which represented the absolute bottom of the list of all fears reported in the survey.<\/p>\n
There were some patterns regarding political affiliation. Among those reporting they were afraid or very afraid of homeless tent encampments, the majority were people identifying as conservatives, at 44%, with moderates at 29% and liberals at 22%.<\/p>\n
Chapman University professors have a book available \u2014 \u201cFear Itself, The Causes and Consequences of Fear in America,\u201d by Christopher D. Bader, Joseph O. Baker, L. Edward Day and Ann Gordon (NYU Press).<\/p>\n
The authors say persistent fear negatively affects decision-making abilities and causes anxiety, depression and poor physical health. Further, fear harms communities and society by corroding social trust and civic engagement. Yet politicians often effectively leverage fears to garner votes, and companies routinely market unnecessary products that promise protection from imagined or exaggerated harms.<\/p>\n
Coping with fears<\/p>\n
Drawing from decades of social science research, the Chapman research team offers several strategies for managing fear in healthy and productive ways.<\/p>\n
These include:<\/p>\n
Limiting screen time and media exposure to minimize alarming content
\nFacing fears through learning and preparation, which engage reason over instinct
\nBuilding social connections, since isolation heightens fear while community reduces it
\nRecognizing manipulation, whether in political rhetoric or consumer messaging, that exploits fear to influence behavior<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we step back and understand what\u2019s behind our fears, we can make better decisions, as individuals and as a society,\u201d said Bader. \u201cFear can motivate us, but it shouldn\u2019t mislead us. Our goal is to encourage thoughtful awareness, not alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we step back and understand what\u2019s behind our fears, we can make better decisions, as individuals and as a society,\u201d said Dr. Bader. \u201cFear can motivate us, but it shouldn\u2019t mislead us. Our goal is to encourage thoughtful awareness, not alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Complete 2025 list of fears \u2014 with % respondents who are afraid or very afraid of them<\/p>\n
Corrupt Government Officials 69.1
\nPeople I Love Becoming Seriously Ill 58.9
\nEconomic\/Financial Collapse 58.2
\nCyber-Terrorism 55.9
\nPeople I Love Dying 55.3
\nU.S. Becoming Involved in Another World War 55.3
\nPollution of Drinking Water 54.5
\nRussia Using Nuclear Weapons 53.7
\nPollution of Oceans, Rivers, and Lakes 53.5
\nGovernment Tracking of Personal Data 52.7
\nNot Having Enough Money for the Future 52.4
\nBiological Warfare 52.3
\nCorporate Tracking of Personal Data 50.7
\nIdentity Theft 50.7
\nTerrorist Attack 49.9
\nNorth Korea Using Nuclear Weapons 49.8
\nArtificial Intelligence (AI) Replacing People in the Workforce 49.2
\nGlobal Warming and Climate Change 48.8
\nCredit Card Fraud 48.8
\nAir Pollution 48.3
\nIran Using Nuclear Weapons 48.0
\nCollapse of the Electrical Grid 47.1
\nHigh Medical Bills 46.2
\nWidespread Civil Unrest 45.3
\nNew Pandemic or a Major Epidemic 45.2
\nNot Having Enough Money to Pay My Rent or Mortage 44.9
\nBeing Unemployed 44.6
\nRandom\/Mass Shooting 44.3
\nExtinction of Plant and Animal Species 43.5
\nNuclear Accident\/Meltdown 43.4
\nNot Being Able to Pay Off College Debt of Myself or a Family Member 43.1
\nBecoming Disabled 42.9
\nTerrorism 42.0
\nClimate Change Impacting Where I Live 41.5
\nBecoming Seriously Ill 41.2
\nDevastating Wildfire 40.5
\nDevastating Drought 39.0
\nDevastating Tornado 38.5
\nOil Spills 38.4
\nTheft of Property 37.5
\nViolent Overthrow of the U.S. Government 36.1
\nDevastating Flood 35.6
\nSharks 35.2
\nHeights 34.3
\nDevastating Hurricane 34.1
\nPublic Speaking 33.7
\nMurder by a Stranger 33.5
\nDevastating Earthquake 33.0
\nGovernment Restrictions on Firearms and Ammunition 31.7
\nRacial\/Hate Crime 31.3
\nSexual Assault by a Stranger 31.2
\nGovernment Use of Drones Within the U.S. 31.2
\nDying 28.6
\nIllegal Immigration 28.2
\nDevastating Blizzard\/Winter Storm 28.0
\nWalking Alone at Night 27.5
\nTechnology That I Don\u2019t Understand 25.9
\nSmall, Enclosed Spaces 25.4
\nMurder by Someone You Know 25.0
\nSexual Assault by Someone You Know 22.4
\nCatching Influenza (the Seasonal Flu) 19.3
\nNeedles 18.6
\nHomeless Tent Encampments 18.3
\nFlying 17.7
\nStrangers 14.6
\nWhites No Longer Being the Majority in the U.S. 13.0
\nHomeless People 11.9<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761661838_217_fears-years.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSource: The Chapman University Survey of American Fears; Chapman\u2019s Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Halloween only days away, we\u2019re looking at the findings of Chapman University\u2019s annual survey of what scares…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,8,17700,405,6276,2581,100,13,732],"class_list":{"0":"post-27051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anaheim","8":"tag-anaheim","9":"tag-anaheim-headlines","10":"tag-anaheim-news","11":"tag-california-news","12":"tag-chapman-university","13":"tag-government","14":"tag-infographic","15":"tag-national-news","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-social-issues"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}