What Do Americans Fear Most?

Do you think Americans are more afraid of possibleterrorist attacks or U. S. government corruption?
If you guessed U.S. government corruption, you wouldbe correct. It turns out Americans are more afraid of
U.S. government corruption than a possible terroristattack!
At least that is what a Chapman University surveyfound.
The researchers say 58 percent of people they asked said they wereeither afraid, or very afraid,
of corruption by government officials. 44.4 percentfear man-made disasters, like terrorist attacks.
Government corruption tops the list of 88 possible fears and anxieties thatpeople were asked about.
The university questioned 1,541 people across thecountry.
Almost half of Americans say they fear cyberterrorism. They also fearhaving their online information tracked b
y the government and corporations.
The university survey grouped fear into 10 major categories. They includecrime, personal anxieties and techn
ology. They also include both man-madeand natural disasters. The rest of
the top 10 fears were corporate trackingpersonal information, terror attacks, biological warfare, identity theft, ru
nningout of money, and credit card fraud.
In the end, people seem to be more afraid of man-made disasters than thosenature gives us.
When it comes to natural disasters, the ones most-feared are pandemics
not hurricanes or earthquakes. Fear of reptiles, like snakes, tops the list ofpersonal anxieties.
The main environmental concern is global warming.
When the subject is daily life, death is what people fear most.
Also, some on the list of fears were not so surprising, like war, insects,loneliness, the dark, and
a fear of heights.
Im Anne Ball.
Dora Mekouar reported on
this story for VOANews.com. Anne Ball adaptedthis story for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.
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Words in This Story

anxieties n. fear, or feeling nervous
cyberterrorism n. terrorism to damage or disrupt computer systems
categories n. groups of things that are similar
fraud n. crime of using dishonest ways to take something from someone
pandemic n. a disease that spreads quickly and affects a large number ofpeople throughout the world
reptile n. an animal like a snake or alligator that has cold blood, lays eggs, and has
a body covered in scales or hard parts