One in eight Americans finds E.T. scary — with men being more frightened than women

If you’re scared of E.T. then rest assured, you’re not alone. One in eight Americans finds E.T. scary.

Many Americans have long harbored a fear they don’t all feel comfortable sharing; that E.T., the ‘cute’ extraterrestrial gracing our screens in 1982, is actually quite fear-inducing.

And while one in eight (13%) finds the far-from-home alien to be ‘very’ scary a further 36% share the sentiment but only deem the being ‘somewhat’ scary.

The fear of E.T. prevalence emerged in our survey where we explored all things aliens on behalf of Wealth of Geeks.

The poll of 1,000 Americans saw a well-adjusted four in 10 (41%) respondents say they feel no fear towards Steven Spielberg’s creation, while some (11%) had not seen the movie and could not say either way.

A wooden model of a movie scene from E.T.

Interestingly, men are nearly twice as likely to find E.T. scary (17%) compared to women (9%).

And there were also huge regional differences in fear levels.

Northeasterners are by far the most prone to fearing E.T. with 30 percent acknowledging a strong scary factor.
Those in the West (13 percent) were next likely to report strong E.T. unease.
While those in the Southeast, Southwest and Midwest were all 5% or lower in terms of feeling E.T. is ‘very’ scary.

The fear of E.T. findings emerged in Wealth of Geeks’ wider aliens survey, which found one in three people (37%) think aliens are living among us in disguise.

However, many remain unconvinced. Forty-one percent of those polled disagree with the notion that extraterrestrial life may be walking and talking among us, with the remainder unsure (22%).

HOW SCARY DO AMERICANS FIND E.T.?

Very scary – 13%
Somewhat scary – 36%
Not very scary – 23%
Not scary at all – 18%
Haven’t seen the movie/can’t say – 11%

Photo credit: images by Rick L and Rombo

Survey methodology
This random double-opt-in survey was conducted by market research company Talker Research, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR). Data was collected from Dec. 1st to Dec. 4th, 2023 from 1,000 general population Americans.