It's been over 7 months when the coronavirus pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt. Here in the United States, many people are still working from home (especially here in Los Angeles and other big cities for non-essential workers), we're still not dining indoor at restaurants, and only gathering in very small groups who are considered part of our "quaranteam."
So it's no wonder that people are more and more afraid of being around large groups of people than ever before. In fact, the most searched phobia this year was: the fear of other people.
Researchers found the fear of other people was the most searched phobia this year, and this is of course suspected to be due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where we really are conditioned to be afraid of other people and their germs.
"Anthropophobia” made up 22 percent of all fears searched nationwide in 2020 — five times the number last year, which is a pretty serious increase, if you ask me!
The researchers also found when the search for the phobia peaked - between April 19th and 25th. This makes sense as it was a month into the most extreme lockdown... and when we really had no end to the lockdown in sight.
Don't you remember the earlier days of the pandemic when just going to the grocery store was a big deal because we hadn't been around people AT ALL for weeks at a time?!
Other largely-Googled phobias include the fear of falling in love or intimacy (which was the most searched in New York) and germaphobia (Florida's most searched fear.)
Oddly enough, here in California something very different was searched: the fear of having no cell phone, which is nomophobia. I suppose if our cell phones were our only outlet to other people, the fear of not having one is very valid? But still a bit bizarre.
What is your biggest fear?! Leave me a Yap below!
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