Fear were, in order: terrorist attacks, spiders, death, failure, war, criminal or gang violence, being alone, the future, and nuclear war. In an estimate of what people fear the most, book author Bill Tancer analyzed the most frequent online queries that involved the phrase, "fear of..." following the assumption that people tend to seek information on the issues that concern them the most. His top ten list of fears published 2008 consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, failure, and driving. According to surveys, some of the most common fears are of demons and ghosts, the existence of
Fear appeal in the exact opposite effect. According to Sternthal and Craig, fear strength affects attitude change more than it does intentions. They argue that although persuasion increases when fear rises from low to moderate levels, when rising from moderate to high levels, it actually decreases. Some have even gone so far as to argue that fear is an entirely unnecessary component of an effective appeal as perceived efficacy is more predictive of intention to change behavior than either element of perceived threat. The tendency for higher levels of fear to raise defensive control responses, it is argued, suggests that fear is