Team Fear is at it once more. For the previous 11 years, this devoted group of researchers with a really cool nickname has performed the annual Chapman University Survey of American Fears. This yr, they surveyed 1,015 grownup Americans on what they fear most, from sharks to heights to id theft.
Wondering which fear took the primary slot? For the tenth consecutive yr, corrupt authorities officers topped the record. Fears of a cherished one turning into significantly sick, financial or monetary collapse, and cyber-terrorism adopted. Here’s the complete record of what Americans fear most in 2025:
- Corrupt authorities officers (with 69.1 p.c of individuals saying they’re afraid or very afraid of this)
- People I like turning into significantly sick (reporting at 58.9 p.c)
- Economic or monetary collapse (58.2 p.c)
- Cyberterrorism (55.9 p.c)
- People I like dying & U.S. turning into concerned in one other world struggle (each tied at 55.3 p.c)
- Pollution of consuming water (54.5 p.c)
- Russia utilizing nuclear weapons (53.7 p.c)
- Pollution of oceans, rivers, and lakes (53.5 p.c)
- Government monitoring of private knowledge (52.7 p.c)
“Understanding what we’re afraid of isn’t about stoking anxiety, it’s about putting those fears into context,” Dr. Christopher Bader, a sociologist at Chapman University in California and the lead researcher on the examine, mentioned in a press release.
There can typically be a disconnect between the issues we fear and actuality, he defined. For occasion, fear of crime has steadily elevated regardless of the crime fee really taking place.
One side of the annual survey is to attract consideration to how individuals can higher handle their fears. Drawing on a long time of analysis, Team Fear suggests: limiting media publicity so that you aren’t always bombarded with upsetting information, researching your fears so you may higher perceive them, recognizing manipulative speech and promoting designed to use fear, and constructing your neighborhood. Fear, like nervousness, typically feeds on isolation, so the stronger your neighborhood, the higher.
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