Americans fear corruption more than terror

Around 58% of Americans have admitted themselves to being “afraid or very afraid” of the possibility of having corrupt government officials.

According to lead author of the study, Christopher Bader, it’s because people are generally afraid of future problems that are outside of their control, technology and economy specifically.

Acting out of fear was a new element to the 2015 survey.

Among those people who report they bought a gun because they were afraid, they mostly reported they were afraid of the government. There subcategories were: technology, man-made disasters, government, personal future, crime, environment, natural disasters, daily life, personal anxieties and judgment of others.

Because they’re afraid, participants in the research noted they were installing home alarm systems, sending their children to private schools, purchasing guns and voting for pro-gun candidates. “People who have purchased a gun because of fear also have high levels of fear of technology and crime”. Further, 86 percent believe an emergency kit would improve their chances of surviving a disaster, but 72 percent indicate they have made no effort to put together such a kit. Most responders said man-made disasters were the scariest, but when the survey got more specific in its examples of things to be afraid of, the number-one most frightening thing actually fell into a different category. More than one-fourth believe that the living and the dead can communicate with each other.

20% of Americans believe both that aliens visited Earth in the many moons back, and that dreams can foresee the future.

The 2015 survey data was organised into five basic categories – personal fears, acting out of fear, natural disasters, paranormal fears, and domains of fear. “But that also means half of Americans do not believe in anything paranormal”.

Aside from corruption, cyber-terrorism and corporate tracking of personal details outranked fear of a terrorist attack in the top 10 of fears crafted in the second edition of Chapman University survey of American Fears (2015)0. So, Chapman University began an annual process of surveying American adults nationwide about their top fears a year ago.

Other tech-related fears cited in the survey were Robots Replacing Workforce and Trusting Artificial Intelligence to do Work.