Forget Fear Factor, what’s your Scare Factor? From a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 signaling zero fear or even a laughable joke to 10 equaling heart attack horror. What’s the average person’s scare factor?
Tornadoes
Average Scare Factor: 7.5
What does the number mean?
Basically it means the entire general public is moderately scared at the thought of a tornado. Out of all the weather related events, tornadoes rank the highest on the scare factor scale. The image of a dark clouded, rapidly moving twister is enough to make people panic and quiver.
Recent outbreaks and tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri, Greensburg, and others have increased people’s fears and made tornadoes even more fearful. Tornadoes have the highest average range on the scare scale. This means that even the weakest, brightest, and smallest tornado rates a 6.0 on the scale.
Snakes (Cobra, Rattlesnake, Anaconda, and more)
Average Scare Number: 4.8
What does the number mean?
A 4.8 means they definitely creep even the bravest person. The larger snakes can even register a 5.5 on the scare scale, which is high enough to scare the general public.
Why?
Snakes are scary because they are often used in movies, mentioned around Halloween, they can be poisonous, dangerous. Some of the large snakes look intimidating, they hiss, they attack, they have a long slithering body, and they can constrict you to death.
Freddy Kruegar
Average Scare Number: 3.0
What does the number mean?
A 3.0 means that children under the age of 12 might get a scare out of him. Most older children and adults especially will find him more amusing and definitely not very scary in the slightest.
Why?
The killing in your dreams is a frightening concept, which is why the first Nightmare on Elm Street was a success and would register a 4.5 on the scare factor scale. Had the villain only appeared in that movie, instead of dozens of future sequels, his scare factor would easily be a 4.0-4.2. The razor fingernails, the mysterious ways he kills his victims, the fact that you can’t escape. The concept of a man in a red and green sweater with a fedora chasing after you in your sleep is terrifying. The movies derailed the concept and lessened the scares, while making the character much more amusing and entertaining then scary.
Ghosts (Poltergeists)
Average Scare Number: Ranges from 2.0-6.0
What does the number mean.
A 2.0 means some ghosts can scare those under eight years old, but are actually interesting and entertaining for most people. A ghost like Casper is not scary, but fun and enjoyable to watch.
Paranormal Activity recently enlightened the ghost genre and made it scary for people. Ghosts still can creep most people out, especially around Halloween. Most people will not spend a night in a supposed haunted location even if they got paid thousands of dollars to do it. Also, If movies like Poltergeist and Paranormal Activity can rake in the money, then ghosts are certainly still a scare factor.
Serial Killer (Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer)
Average Scare Number: 9.0
What does it mean?
It means the majority of us are scared out of our minds at the thought of a serial killer being on the loose. This is not a movie, this is a real concept. Serial killers have no empathy, they kill, the cut you up, they do absolutely horrific things that make the general public shriek.
Technology has advanced though to the point where we can easily catch a killer on the loose so we’ll probably never see something like the Zodiac Killer or Jack the Ripper again, but then again serial killers are smarter than we believe, which is even more frightening with the advancement of technology today (here’s looking at you Facebook, Ipad, Iphone).
Terrorism
Average Scare Number: 10.0
People were not that scared of terrorists before 9/11 happened. When the World Trade Center was hit by two planes, the United States of America became the country that feared all who drew near it.
The 10.0 on the scale means that we are petrified at the thought of any terrorism, it affects our lives, it affects where we go, and it affects the way we travel. Going on a plane registered a 5.5 on the scale prior to 9/11 but now is as high as 6.5 for most people, meaning they have anxiety and fear the worst.
Hopefully as time passes, we become more protected, Al Queda terrorists groups get shut down, and our fear diminishes somewhat. Before that happens though, we will always live in fear of an insane group trying to blast us out of here.
Death
Average Scare Number Range from 1.0-10.0
Why?
Death has the biggest range on the scare scale. It ranks from 1, a non-factor, to a 10, total anxiety filled fear. The reason for this is that there are a lot of people who simply ignore the notion of death like it doesn’t even exist. They will only show fear if death imminently presents itself.
Then there are people who can’t go through life without thinking about death, like every day is like the movie Final Destination where death is after them. I don’t know if death is specifically targeting you, but there are situations where death becomes more possible.
People who work in an office compared to a construction site will have a lower fear of death. The irony is that there are people who are involved in death defying jobs and register low scare numbers while people in very safe jobs register high numbers.
So the fear of death is all about perception, as are all the fears listed. Some people are more scared then others. The only thing certain is that everyone has a fear no matter how brave someone appears to be. So just like everyone registers a number on the weight scale, they will always register a number on the scare scale.
