Public Speaking: Our greatest fear?
Is public speaking our greatest fear? Do we fear public speaking more than death?
I think not. It makes a great joke for Jerry Seinfeld. And he didn’t invent the joke or myth. The origin of that line goes back many decades before Jerry used that line.
The old joke is, more people fear public speaking than fear death. That means that people would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy. Ha, ha, ah.
It might still get a laugh and it’s not true.
Let’s examine this claim.
Apparently, someone conducted a poll decades ago. Who and when? Was it 60, 70 or 80 years ago? I don’t know because I haven’t seen a source for this poll. Was it a sizeable number? Was it a scientific poll? Or was it a show of hands at a comedy club?
As you know statistics are the easiest lie to present as your “facts” because most people don’t understand the truth behind statistics and many statistics were misconstrued for a purpose.
Let’s explore this claim of public speaking as our greatest fear.
Think about this for a minute or few. What’s your greatest fear?
The question isn’t “What fear is at top of mind right now?”
That might be:
These might be immediate and timely fears, but top of mind doesn’t make it our greatest fear. Let’s face reality, our greatest fear is dying.
We might not like to admit that because it’s an unpleasant thought. And we aren’t often threatened with death unless you live in a war zone or face a deadly disease.
Yet the fear of dying is our greatest fear because it is that fear that keeps us alive as individuals and as a species. We desperately want to live – to survive.
However, that fear is buried in our amygdala and part of our subconscious therefore, we don’t think about it until the immediate danger is raised.
Let’s consider more everyday fears that people face.
Fear of flying, fear of snakes, fear of spiders, fear of heights, fear of crowds and fear of public speaking.
I wonder if that poll presented all the typical fears and asked people to rate them.
Bottom line: fear of public speaking is NOT our greatest fear. It is a common fear because what we really fear is being judged by others. It’s not the public speaking that scares us. It’s the public judgement. Apparently we didn’t get past the high school social acceptance challenge.
How can we fit in with the in-crowd?
Public speaking is NOT our greatest fear. It is a common fear experienced by many people regardless of postion and money.