A comprehensive list of the things that Americans fear the most

Americans fear gun control more than war, pandemic and nuclear attack, but nothing is scarier than government corruption.

Those are just some of the findings from the second Survey of American Fears from California's Chapman University, which examines fears themselves, the potential causes and their consequences.

Around 1,500 volunteers were given a list of 88 common fears and asked to indicate whether they found them scary.

Fifty-eight per cent of respondents said they were either 'afraid' or 'very afraid' of corruption of government officials, compared to 44.8 per cent for cyber-terrorism and 44.4 per cent for terrorist attacks.

Study leader Dr Christopher Bader said:

The 2015 survey data shows us the top fears are heavily based in economic and 'big brother' type issues.

People often fear what they cannot control, and technology and the future of our economy are two aspects of life that Americans find very unpredictable at the moment.

More than 300 mass shootings have taken place in the US so far this year but only 16.4 per cent of people said they were afraid of them, compared to 18.2 per cent for 'whites no longer majority', 23.9 per cent for 'robots' and 35.7 per cent for 'Obamacare'.

See the full results below:

You can read more about the study here.

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