Don’t ask me what drives me down internet rabbit holes at any hour of the day or night. Curiosity, or something, led me to Google for anything that might be found on “most common fears.” There were countless articles on phobias but that’s not quite what was nipping at me. It was just regular, good, old-fashioned fear.

There is one article from Psychology Today, by a guy named Karl Albrecht, that comes closer. It’s not the whole story, but it’s a beginning. It’s food for thought:

“Fear has gotten a bad rap among most human beings. And it’s not nearly as complicated as we try to make it. A simple and useful definition of fear is: An anxiousfeeling, caused by our anticipation
of some imagined event or experience.

Medical experts tell us that the anxious feeling we get when we’re afraid is a standardized biological reaction. It’s pretty much the same set of body signals, whether we’re afraid of getting bitten by a dog, getting turned down for a date, or getting our taxes audited.

Fear, like all other emotions, is basically information. It offers us knowledge and understanding—if we choose to accept it—of our psychobiological status.

And there are only five basic fears, out of which almost all of our other so-called fears are manufactured. These are:

1. Extinction—the fear of annihilation, of ceasing to exist. This is a more fundamental way to express it than just calling it “fear of death.” The idea of no longer being arouses a primary existential anxiety in all normal humans. Consider that panicky feeling you get when you look over the edge of a high building.
2. Mutilation—the fear of losing any part of our precious bodily structure; the thought of having our body’s boundaries invaded, or of losing the integrity of any organ, body part, or natural function. Anxiety about animals, such as bugs, spiders, snakes, and other creepy things arises from fear of mutilation.
3. Loss of Autonomy—the fear of being immobilized, paralyzed, restricted, enveloped, overwhelmed, entrapped, imprisoned, smothered, or otherwise controlled by circumstances beyond our control. In physical form, it’s commonly known as claustrophobia, but it also extends to our social interactions and relationships.
4. Separation—the fear of abandonment, rejection, and loss of connectedness; of becoming a non-person—not wanted, respected, or valued by anyone else. The “silent treatment,” when imposed by a group, can have a devastating psychological effect on its target.
5. Ego-death—the fear of humiliation, shame, or any other mechanism of profound self-disapproval that threatens the loss of integrity of the Self; the fear of the shattering or disintegration of one’s constructed sense of lovability, capability, and worthiness.

That’s all—just those five. They can be thought of as forming a simple hierarchy, or “feararchy”:

I’ve spent the better part of the last ten years listening to men and women discuss “natural instinct run riot. So much of what we do is fear-driven, or instinct-driven, so in any given situation, we’re going to need our instinctual reactions to be in proportion to what triggers them. And you’re going to need to sort out exactly what you’re afraid of when…

• 

Well, this wasn’t meant to be an essay. There are far better minds to handle the explanations. This is really just about curiosity. What are other people afraid of? What fear drives this and that? What are people confessing to? So… a placeholder?

And the whole article here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brainsnacks/201203/the-only-5-fears-we-all-share

I think I am looking for a survey or a ranking.