THE HARRIS POLL #49, August 18, 1999

Snakes top the list.
Women and people with less education have many more fears than men and those with more education.
Decline since 1992 in those very afraid of snakes, being alone in a forest and going out of home at night.
Increase in fear of flying.
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by Humphrey Taylor

Snakes top the list of the most common fears, with more than a third (36%) of all adults saying they are very afraid of them. Fear of heights is also a problem for many people; most people are at least somewhat afraid of looking down from a great height and 23% are very afraid of doing so.

These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 1,015 adults surveyed between July 15 and 20, 1999.

Fear of flying is also quite high on the list of fears (14% very afraid, and 35% very or somewhat afraid). However, most of the interviewing was conducted right after John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife and sister-in-law crashed and died on July 16^th, which may have inflated the numbers for this particular fear.

Other fears that are relatively high on the list are:

• being alone in a forest (13% very afraid, 41% very or somewhat afraid)
• spiders or insects (12% very afraid, 37% very or somewhat afraid) and
• mice (10% very afraid, 27% very or somewhat afraid).

At the other end of the scale, fewer people are afraid of:

• thunder and lightning (5% very afraid and 23% very or somewhat afraid)
• being alone at home at night (3% and 14%)
• being alone in the elevator (3% and 10%)
• being in a big crowd (3% and 18%)
• dogs (2% and 21%)
• going out of home at night (2% and 17%).

Big Differences between Men and Women, and People With More/Less Education

Women have many more fears than men, and people with less education have many more fears than people with more education. For example, some of the differences between the proportions of men and women who are "very afraid" are huge:

• fear of snakes: 22% (men) versus 49% (women)
• fear of heights: 13% versus 32%
• fear of flying: 7% versus 20%
• fear of being alone in a forest: 4% versus 22%
• fear of spiders and insects: 4% versus 19%.

And when it comes to little furry creatures, women (18%) are nine times more likely than men (2%) to be very afraid of mice.

Some of the differences between those with more or less education are also substantial – particularly fear of snakes, heights, flying and forests. On the other hand, people who never went to college (4%) are actually less likely than college graduates (6%) and post-graduates (8%) to be very afraid of thunder and lighting.

Harris last asked these questions in 1992. The only fear to increase (i.e. more people are afraid now) over the last seven years is fear of flying; those very afraid of flying have increased from 9% to 14%. However this increased fear of flying may be a short-term blip, caused by the crash of John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane.

Some of the decreases in fear since 1992 are intriguing:

• Those "very afraid" of going out of their homes at night have fallen from 7% in 1992 to only 2% now, a huge change which must surely reflect the dramatic reduction in the number of violent crimes over the last seven years.
  
• A decline from 41% to 36% in those "very afraid" of snakes.
  
• A decline from 21% to 13% in those "very afraid" of being alone in a forest. As this happens to only a few Americans, it is difficult to explain why this has happened.

It is easier to measure changes than to explain them. Possibly the 1992 measures (on snakes and forests) followed some TV programs or movies in which bad things happened to people in forests, including being attacked by snakes.

Base: All adults

"Are you very afraid, somewhat afraid, or not afraid of (ITEM)?"

Base: All adults

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*NOTE:

John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife and sister-in-law died when their plane crashed on July 16, just before most of the fieldwork was conducted.

WOMEN AND PEOPLE WITH LESS EDUCATION MUCH MORE AFRAID THAN MEN AND THOSE WITH MORE EDUCATION

This Harris Poll was conducted by telephone within the United States between July 15 to 20, among a nationwide cross section of 1,015 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education, number of adults and number of voice/telephone lines in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population.

In theory, with a sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, interviewer bias, weighting by demographic control data and screening (e.g., for likely voters). It is difficult or impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors.

These statements conform to the principles of disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.

2006
Q1000