Survey Shows Americans Fear Ghosts, the Government, and Each Other

CARRIE POPPY

Every year, Chapman University tells us what we fear the most. While “What’s your biggest fear?” might seem a psychological riddle, these researchers have got it down to a science, using rigorous polling methods to ask Americans about the most common fears and suspicions that plague them. The project, which is in its third year, offers telling insights about fear of government control and terrorism. For readers of Skeptical Inquirer, the survey covers something else equally compelling: Americans’ seemingly unshakable beliefs in the paranormal and in conspiracy theories. And things are looking … well … pretty bonkers.

According to the new research in the 2016 survey, issued in October, 46.6 percent of Americans believe places can be haunted by spirits; 27 percent believe that extraterrestrials have visited Earth in “our ancient past” (we no doubt can thank the History Channel, in part, for this result); 24.7 percent say aliens have come to Earth “in modern times”; 13.5 percent are eating tacos, answering email, and all the while believing that Bigfoot is real; and a whopping 39.6 percent believe that Atlantis, or something like it, once existed.

Conspiracies were a new addition this year, but paranormal beliefs are categorically distinct from conspiracy theories. For one, conspiracies do happen, whereas ghosts (as far as we can tell) do not. It’s simply when we speak of a massive, and massively unlikely, conspiracy requiring many players pulling off incredibly difficult cover-ups that these theories become less likely than the original story they’re meant to blow wide open. Still, an alarming number of Americans believe in outlandish conspiracy theories. Some are more rational than others, and the survey is designed to fairly assess the nuances, from believing that the government might not be disclosing all the details about the 9/11 attacks (which might not be totally outlandish, and which is vague enough that any unreleased detail about 9/11 might be considered “covered up”) to the idea that the moon landing never happened (which has been completely discredited).