Most searched phobia of 2020 is fear of other people, researchers say
Google Trends data over the past 10 months were broken down by state
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People most Googled the phobia during lockdown. (iStock)
The most-Googled phobia of the year is fear of other people, according to researchers, who attribute the trend to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Anthropophobia” made up 22 percent of all fears searched nationwide in 2020 — five times the number last year, Psych News Daily reported.
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Searches for the word peaked between April 19 and 25 as the coronavirus crisis raged, and many people were stuck in lockdown, according to the outlet, which cited a report by security firm ADT.
New York’s most-searched fear was philophobia, the fear of falling in love or intimacy.
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In Florida, which has seen a sky-high number of coronavirus cases, the most Googled fear was germaphobia.
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Californians, by contrast, were most frightened of having no cellphone, also known as nomophobia.
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New Jersey is most scared of the dark, Massachusetts is terrified by failure and Indiana fears being alone.
To come up with the results, researchers analyzed Google Trends data over the past 10 months.