Team Fear is back in action. For 11 years now, this dedicated group of researchers with a very cool nickname has been holding an annual Chapman University Study of American Fears. This year they asked 1,015 American adults what they feared most: sharks to the height to identity theft.
Want to know which fear ranked number one? For the tenth year in a row, corrupt government officials topped the list. This was followed by fears of a loved one's serious illness, economic or financial collapse, and cyberterrorism. Here's the full list of what Americans fear most in 2025:
- Corrupt government officials (69.1% of participants said they were afraid or very afraid of this)
- People I love get seriously ill (58.9 percent)
- Economic or financial collapse (58.2 percent)
- Cyberterrorism (55.9 percent)
- People I love are dying and the US is being drawn into another world war (both tied at 55.3 percent)
- Drinking water contamination (54.5 percent)
- Russia uses nuclear weapons (53.7 percent)
- Pollution oceansrivers and lakes (53.5 percent)
- Government tracking of personal data (52.7 percent)
“Understanding what we fear is not about stoking anxiety, but about putting those fears in context,” said Dr. Christopher Bader, a sociologist at Chapman University in California and lead researcher of the study, in his report. statement.
He explained that there can often be a gap between what we fear and reality. For example, fear of crime is steadily increasing despite crime rates actually falling.
One aspect of the annual survey is to highlight how people can better manage your fears. Drawing on decades of research, Team Fear suggests: limiting your exposure to media so you aren't constantly bombarded with bad news, exploring your fears to better understand them, recognizing manipulative speech and advertising designed to exploit fear, and building your community. Fear like anxietyoften feeds on isolation, so the stronger your community, the better.
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