What Are We Afraid Of?

I was recently asked to judge a writing contest called “Winter Hauntings”.  Local writers were invited to create eerie stories with a local flavor.  The most difficult part?  It can only be about 1,000 words. 

On January 29th, the winners will be announced, and local community theater actors will read the three finalists. It’s a great event with music and it was sold out last year. 

All of the entries were excellent and there were some that were outstanding.  Now, there were also a couple that I didn’t find scary.  

But what frightens us is subjective, isn’t it?  What scares the bejesus out of me might not have any effect on you.   

I went to Google to see what scares most of us and it, in itself, was kind of scary. Chapman University does an annual study to find out what frightens Americans the most.  Please allow me to list their findings for 2024:

1) Corrupt Government Officials (65.2%)

2) People I Love Becoming Seriously Ill (58.4%)

3) Cyberterrorism (58.3%)

4) People I Love Dying (57.8%)

5) Russia Using Nuclear Weapons (55.7%)

6) Not Having Enough Money for the Future (55.7%)

7) US Becoming Involved in Another World War (55.0%)

8) N. Korea Using Nuclear Weapons (55.0%)

9) Terrorist Attack (52.7%)

10) Biological Warfare (52.5%)

Chapman University explains that American’s fears rise and fall with current events, but they also correspond to social media.  For example, ranking high but not in the top ten was a fear of rising crime, in spite of the fact that rates of crime continue to fall. 

Other fears that scored high were serial killings and mass shootings.  Yeah, I get that. 

Going into the study, it was generally thought the number one fear would be the Fear of Public Speaking.  Nope…it came in at 29%, a few percentage points below the fear of sharks. 

I was personally disappointed that Climate Change didn’t figure higher in our list of fears. 

So, to wrap up, none of the stories I judged for the contest had anything to do with corrupt government officials. There were ghosts, killers, and ravenous birds, but no cyberterrorism or nuclear weapons.

I, however, still enjoy a good story with mists in a swamp, noises in the dark, mysterious footsteps on the stairs, and a good jump scare.  

I wish you a Happy New Year that is completely devoid of any of the listed scary items.  Vampires and zombies, we can deal with them.