By Supposedly America's most common superstition, fear of Friday the 13th has been good movie material (12 times), but this summer we're kind of—indifferent.
Maybe it's because we have better things to worry about. Searches on Yahoo! and Google for this day have been mild. Nonetheless, today's as good a day as any to check in on our fear factors.
These terms rank in the latter part of the top buzzing searches on Yahoo!
- Friday the 13th superstitions
- Friday the 13th
- Friday the 13th status updates—#fridaythe13th mildly moving as a hashtag on Twitter as folks post about not walking under ladders, having computer problems or stubbing their toe.
Passing on paranoia to the next generation: In the past 30 days, 38 percent of searches for "Friday the 13th" came from kids under 13. In general, youth 17 and under made up 43 percent of look-ups of that fateful day, although curiosity about that starts to taper off in your 50s—when you appreciate any Friday, even one wrought with doom.
Also, here's something intriguing about a gender divide: 71 percent of "Friday the 13th" searches come from males. Females have other things to worry about—maybe males who plot things on Friday the 13th.
Next year will be tough: For those who suffer from triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13, next year will be tough. But the year ending in 13 will have only have two months with a Friday that falls on the dreaded number, September and December.
The most common fears readers searched for last week:
- xenophobia—fear of strangers
- agoraphobia—fear of open spaces
- trypophobia—fear of holes (or objects with holes)
- arachnophobia—fear of spiders
- homophobia—fear of gays and lesbians
- claustrophobia—fear of closed spaces
(Seriously) random fear searches on Yahoo!:
- "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant" (said by a Japanese admiral after the attack on Pearl Harbor)
- "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate…"
- Fear the Beard
- Tears for Fears
- No Fear, No Fear T-Shirts
- Fear the Fin
- Don't Fear the Reaper lyrics
- Fear Quotes
Vera H-C Chan contributed to this report.