SAN DIEGO — Halloween is a time for spooky frights, and there’s nothing that will send a tingle down a spine quite like confronting one’s biggest “irrational” fear.
“Phobias” can feel just as scary as a haunted house for some, even though they are unlikely to actually cause harm in the course of everyday life. Whether it’s heights or spiders, these overwhelming fears come in varying forms and degrees of intensity.
However, there’s a few common phobias that keep more people up at night than others.
One recent survey, conducted by online gaming site Casino.org, sought to figure out what some of the biggest fears of Americans are and how it breaks down by state.
The survey found that Acrophobia, or the fear of heights, came in as the most widespread fear across the U.S., with respondents in 21 states putting that at the top of their list. California was among those states.
Social phobia came in the No. 2 spot while Arachnophobia, or the fear of spiders, was ranked right behind, according to the survey.
Four phobias tied for the country’s fourth biggest fear including: Atychiphobia (the fear of failure), Thanatophobia (the fear of death), Trypanophobia (the fear of injections) and Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes).
Another three phobias tied for fifth place among the country’s most popular phobias: Agoraphobia (the fear of crowds), Glossophobia (the fear of public speaking) and Trypophobia (the fear of circle clusters).
Surprisingly, the well-known phobia Claustrophobia, which is the fear of enclosed spaces, appeared to only be at the top of the list for residents of one state, Mississippi.
A map of the biggest fears in each state can be found below.
According to Casino.org, 2,500 U.S. residents were surveyed for the study about their biggest phobias. The average age of respondents was 37.9 years old. The representative sample comprised of 50.9% female respondents, 46.8% male, 1.7% non-binary, 0.4% transgender and 0.2% other, the website added.
