Five things people fear. Tap them in order, from the one that feels most dangerous to the one that feels least. Go on gut feeling, do not look anything up.
Approximate deaths per year in the United States, most to least:
The order barely matches your fears. The risks that feel scariest, the rare and vivid ones, tend to kill the fewest, while the everyday risks we shrug at do the real damage. Fear runs on dread and on how easily a horror comes to mind, not on the numbers.
Slovic (1987); Loewenstein, Weber, Hsee & Welch (2001). Figures are approximate, rounded US annual deaths, chosen for clear orderings; the ranking is the point, not the exact counts.