AI fears enter Americans’ top 10 ahead of the midterms
Chapman University’s 2026 survey puts AI fears about elections and the economy among Americans’ most prominent concerns.
Artificial intelligence has entered Americans’ top 10 fears for the first time, with worries about the technology harming the political process and damaging the economy both appearing prominently in Chapman University’s 2026 Survey of American Fears.12 The findings arrive as the United States moves towards its midterm elections and public arguments about AI-generated misinformation intensify.
Chapman says the survey was conducted online in April by NORC at the University of Chicago, which questioned 1,221 adults.1 Corrupt government officials remained the most common fear, cited by 61.1% of respondents, while the possibility of the US becoming involved in another world war moved up to second place.2
AI-related concerns broke into that established list in several ways. Fear of AI harming the election process ranked third, while fear of AI hurting the economy ranked seventh.2 The survey also recorded broader technology worries, including government tracking of personal data, cyberterrorism, the use of drones inside the US and technology that respondents do not understand.12
The results do not present AI as an entirely negative force. Chapman’s account quotes Seth Benzell, an assistant professor of business and economics, saying people become more hopeful when AI is framed as a tool that could help them build something they could not previously make.1 That distinction matters: the survey is measuring public fear, not proving that every feared outcome will happen.
The poll also found anxiety about AI in everyday working life. Respondents reported fears about AI replacing workers and about having an AI manager or having their work evaluated by AI, while environmental effects and harm to personal relationships appeared elsewhere in the wider list.2
Our opinion
The useful news here is the change in what researchers are asking, as much as any individual ranking. AI is no longer a vague future-facing subject in this survey: respondents are connecting it to elections, employment, the economy, privacy and relationships. That does not make every fear equally likely, but it does show that public confidence is being shaped by concrete institutions and political events rather than science-fiction speculation alone.
The survey is a snapshot of attitudes, not a forecast. Still, with AI-related fears reaching the top 10 twice and appearing throughout the wider results, the technology has clearly become part of how many Americans understand risk in 2026.12