--- title: Here are Americans' Greatest Fears description: In a recent survey of fears in the U.S., Chapman University researchers found that corruption of government officials is Americans' number one fear in 2015. canonical: https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-14T19:09:48.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:00.662Z og:title: Here's What Americans Are Most Afraid Of og:description: It's not what you think og:url: https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Americans Are Most Afraid Of twitter:description: It's not what you think twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's What Americans Are Most Afraid Of ## Video: Fear and Paranoia in America: From Germans to Jihadists [Watch (HLS stream): Fear and Paranoia in America: From Germans to Jihadists](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zxtFhn2K.m3u8) (4:24)  _Published 2010-10-28. On the eve of the midterm elections, politicians and the media are trading on a long-standing culture of fear in America_ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 14, 2015 7:09 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 14, 2015 7:09 PM UTC Corruption of government officials is currently Americans’ number one fear, according to a [recent survey](https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/2015/10/13/americas-top-fears-2015/) by researchers at Chapman University. The researchers asked a random sample of 1,541 adults to rate the level of fear for 88 different fear options across a variety of domains (like crime and natural disasters). Based on their findings, here were the top 10 fears for 2015: * Corruption of government officials (58.0%) * Cyber-terrorism (44.8%) * Corporate tracking of personal information (44.6%) * Terrorist attacks (44.4%) * Government tracking of personal information (41.4%) * Bio-warfare (40.9%) * Identity theft (39.6%) * Economic collapse (39.2%) * Running out of money in the future (37.4%) * Credit card fraud (36.9%) Interestingly, the researchers also found that half of all Americans [believe in something paranormal](https://blogs.chapman.edu/happenings/2015/10/14/what-do-americans-fear/), with 40% reporting they believe places are haunted by spirits, and over one fourth believing the living and dead can communicate. Also in the survey, 20% of people reported that aliens visited Earth in the past and that dreams can predict the future. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/"},"headline":"Here's What Americans Are Most Afraid Of","datePublished":"2015-10-14T19:09:48.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:00.662Z","description":"In a recent survey of fears in the U.S., Chapman University researchers found that corruption of government officials is Americans' number one fear in 2015.","url":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society","Fear"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/","name":"Here's What Americans Are Most Afraid Of"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Fear and Paranoia in America: From Germans to Jihadists","description":"On the eve of the midterm elections, politicians and the media are trading on a long-standing culture of fear in America","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zxtFhn2K/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2010-10-28T19:52:21.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zxtFhn2K.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/","duration":"PT4M24S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```