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Pubic speaking is commonly stated as the number one fear, above everything else, even death. But is public speaking the number one fear?
Is Public Speaking The Number 1 Fear?
Well, recent studies say that no, it isn’t.
Yes, maybe public speaking used to be the number one fear above everything else, but now the number one fear is running out of money in old age, or running out of money before we die.
More people are now afraid of running out of money in their old age, because we don’t have the government left to support us if we want to live a wealthy life. Often we can’t even rely on our family or can’t rely on the company that we have worked for.
So, that now has gone to the number one fear.
I couldn’t find out exactly where public speaking sits, if it now sits as the number 2 fear. There are a lot of different studies out there, so if you really want to know you can go looking for yourself.
But, if you getting up and you are talking about public speaking and you want to say that public speaking is the number one fear. Well, technically it’s not going to be true anymore. And I have said it in past videos and past podcasts and I will have to stop saying it.
Of course public speaking is not the number one fear. And it’s not something new. I often point to the Gallup poll results reported back in March 2001 with the title Snakes Top List of Americans’ Fears:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1891/snakes-top-list-americans-fears.aspx
Before Halloween in 2012 I blogged about how Either Way You Look at It, Public Speaking Really is Not Our Greatest Fear:
http://joyfulpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/2012/10/either-way-you-look-at-it-public_23.html
I guess it would be more accurate to state “public speaking is (or was) feared by the most people compared to any other fear” rather than “the greatest fear”.
As discussed in your blog post, depending on the study different people got different results as the most commonly feared thing.