--- title: Halloween: See What Americans Are Most Afraid of description: At least according to their Google search histories canonical: https://time.com/4083302/halloween-fear-google-searches/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-26T16:56:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:51.289Z og:title: Here's What Americans Fear Most og:description: At least according to their Google search histories og:url: https://time.com/4083302/halloween-fear-google-searches/ 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 Fear Most twitter:description: At least according to their Google search histories twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What Americans Fear Most, According to Their Google Search Histories > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Behind the Screams: A Haunted House's Scaring Secrets [Watch (HLS stream): Behind the Screams: A Haunted House's Scaring Secrets](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ZZJrI5pS.m3u8) (3:25)  _Published 2013-10-17. Step into the shoes of Michael Jubie, co-owner of Headless Horseman Hayrides and Haunted Houses, as he gives an inside look at what it's like to run one of the largest haunted houses in the nation._ by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 26, 2015 4:56 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Oct 26, 2015 4:56 PM UTC When you’re a human, there are so, _so_ many things to be scared of. Poisonous spiders. Snakes. The idea that nobody outside your immediate family will ever love you. The dissolution of the middle class. Instagram going down. [The Really Big One](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/07/20/the-really-big-one). Losing your basic human rights. Losing your mind. Losing your HBO GO access.\* For Americans, the _biggest_ fear, apparently, is corruption of government officials, according to a [recent survey](http://time.com/4073702/heres-what-americans-are-most-afraid-of/). (Other biggies from that study included cyber-terrorism, economic collapse and corporate tracking of personal information. Basically, we’re all really paranoid.) But actually, when you use the super-scientific metric of Google searches, Americans are mostly afraid of things like God, heights and other people. To gear up for Halloween, which is obviously the spookiest day of the year, we decided to look for the most common Google searches for the words “scared,” “afraid” and “fear” to see what _really_ terrifies people the most. Unfortunately, data was not available for smaller states, but we like to think the results were indicative of what’s going on in the collective American psyche. So, with that in mind, here are some of the most common fear-related Google searches in the country: **“Fear of death”** In every single state for which there was enough data — California, New York, Texas and more — people searched “afraid of death” rather frequently. What these people don’t seem to realize is that death shouldn’t be seen as something scary; it should be seen as a respite from all the _other_ terrifying things out there. (Like, again, losing your HBO Go access.\*\* No need to worry about that if you’re already dead.) “**Afraid of love”** Some people are [addicted](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcATvu5f9vE) to love. Others are afraid of it. Most people, in fact, are afraid of it. Maybe they should dress up as love on Halloween and just spook the hell out of everyone. **“Fear of people”** This is another common search, and there’s actually a word for it: anthropophobia, [defined](http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/anthropophobia) as “a pathological fear of people or human companionship.” Some of us just kind of hate people, but others do, apparently, have a legitimate fear of them. ### See the Fantastically Weird Images Google’s Self-Evolving Software Made  These pictures aren’t from the mind of a person on psychedelic drugs. Instead they represent the way Google’s AI software is able to reinterpret different images  Google’s software, called an artificial neural network, is able to learn in the same way a human brain does.  Google trains the network to see by feeding it millions of images that teach it how to interpret different objects.  The network is built of 10 to 30 layers of artificial neurons, each of which interpret different levels of complexity in an image.  These pictures were made by feeding the network an arbitrary image and allowing it to enhance whatever it deems most important  The images serve as a way to test how well the network has learned during training  The results are colorful, jarring and beautiful. Each layer of the network can come up with a different interpretation Google  Google calls this process of abstract re-interpretations of images “inceptionism”  Certain objects are often re-interpreted in similar ways. Horizon lines are often filled with towers and pagodas, rocks turn into buildings, and birds or insects appear in pictures of leaves  In addition to re-interpreting images, the network can create “dreams” from a random-noise image by continually building new impressions on top of its old ones Google  In the future neural networks could be used by artists as a new form of visual expression  Google will continue using neural networks for everything from voice recognition to identifying people in its Photos app “**What is fear”** Apparently _some_ people are so fearless that they actually need Google to find out what fear even is. “What is fear” is the top search for the word “fear” in New York, which makes a ton of sense, because New York is home to Pizza Rat. [Watch the Pizza Rat video](http://time.com/4043383/rat-pizza-slice-subway/) again and tell me he’s not triumphantly screaming “WHAT IS FEAR” inside his gross, tiny little head. **“Scared of lonely”** This was a popular search in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Texas. At first we were like, _Aww, everyone is scared of being lonely, those poor little guys! You’ll be okay!_ But then we realized “Scared of Lonely” is actually [a Beyoncé song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hf9JbaKlc). Obviously, it’s great. And, as it turns out, listening to Beyoncé is a great way to forget about all your fears and just dance them away. **“Afraid of commitment”** A word of advice to the people Googling this one: make sure your girlfriend doesn’t see your search history. She will not like that you’re looking to the Internet for help with a so-called fear of commitment. This might lead to A Talk about Where Is This Even Going. Save yourself the trouble and search this one in an [incognito tab](https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95464?hl=en). **“Fear of words”** A common search in Georgia and Texas. Words are great though! And if you ever start to feel overwhelmed by them, try watching [this clip ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16JjG7Xjw54)of Ron Swanson sitting down at a typewriter to type every word he knows: Rectangle. America. Megaphone. Monday. Butthole. See? Words are fun. **“No fear”** This was a popular search in just two states: California and Florida. Not sure about California, but _obviously_ people in Florida have no fear. That’s why they commit all those [reckless and weird crimes](http://mentalfloss.com/article/52914/10-weird-crimes-could-only-happen-florida), because they literally do not fear the repercussions. _\*Seriously, can anyone hook a girl up? I still need to watch Amy Schumer’s comedy special._ _\*\*Please?_ _—reporting by Merrill Fabry_ ## Transcript I'm gonna be in your trunk or your car when you get to it. I'll be in your bedroom tonight when you get home. You take it with you when you leave. My actors will never say get out of here unless you got to get out of here. [ MUSIC ] Flag it with a flat tire, correction a tractor. [ MUSIC ] We have a flat tire down at Set one. Is it completely flat, Mike? We bought the property with the exclusive idea of doing a hayride and we started out with 35 actors, and today, we have over 350. [ MUSIC ] We are located on 45 acres, and we use every inch of it. We have six haunted houses. We have a tractor and a wagon that goes out every two minutes. When they get on the wagon here [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] And then the wagon'll stop, stop right here. [ INAUDIBLE ] And this is where they get the rules of the road. [ MUSIC ] [ INAUDIBLE ] We got a phone call about this hospital that was abandoned and the kids were going in there and they wanted to get it empty as soon as they could Took two days and about four or five trailer fulls of stuff out of there. We've got operating room lights, X- ray machines, crash carts, birthing tables. We're pretty fortunate with that. [ NOISE ] This is an old sixties era motel. We went as far as to find the man walks on the moon newspaper. 1969 Calendar. The McCalls. Magazine, 1933. In the old machines, in the old radio. [ NOISE ] And just past the main road, turn left, and [ INAUDIBLE ] Follow the horse corral up. You're welcome. She just got hired yesterday. There wasn't as many haunted houses around when I was young, growing up like there are today. We've been in this business 21 years, and we were really at the starting point of it. Now we're going into the Jack the Ripper part of the the story. He dismembered women and these are actually from The Jack the Ripper story this is how he would dismember some of them and leave their body parts on. Their stomachs. I firmly believe that the quick pop out scare the quick startle [ MUSIC ] Still is the best scare. But I guess they're looking for Hollywood quality, sets, and scares. Here they're part of the movie, and they really wanna have some eye candy to see you know some, the wow factor. I'm out on the property but I'm also up in the office. I hear the crowd and, and that's what it's all about. If we can't make you scream, we can make you laugh a little bit or laugh at the person you're with. 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