Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 1/5

Abrahams: Up to 85% of people experience communication anxiety across all cultures

Matt Abrahams · Matt Abrahams: How to nail pitches, interviews & presentations | Masters of Scale · Apr 6, 2026 · at 3:17

Stanford communication lecturer Matt Abrahams discusses the universal nature of public speaking anxiety with host Jeff Berman.

0:00 / 0:09exact quote · 9.8s

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“We have some evidence that suggests up to 85% of people feel anxiety, and quite frankly, I think the other 15% are lying. Those of us who study it have found it in every culture we've studied.”

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The claim, plainly

Research indicates that up to 85% of people experience communication anxiety, and researchers have documented it across every culture studied.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The claim consists of two distinct assertions regarding communication anxiety research, both of which are supported by published literature: (1) Prevalence figures reaching up to ~85%: Peer-reviewed studies and communication literature syntheses (e.g., Burnley, Cross, & Spanos, 1993; Katz, 2000; Hamilton, 2008; McCroskey PRCA/PRPSA normative data; Kessler et al., 1998) consistently report that when including mild to severe levels, between 70% and 85% of surveyed populations report experiencing communication apprehension or public speaking anxiety. (2) Cross-cultural documentation: Extensive cross-cultural communication research (such as foundational studies by McCroskey, Richmond, Klopf, and subsequent international evaluations across North America, East Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East) consistently identifies and documents communication apprehension in every cultural population assessed to date.

Burnley, Cross, & Spanos (1993) reported that approximately 85% of the general population experiences some level of anxiety or apprehension when speaking in public.
Communication literature syntheses (e.g., Katz, 2000; Hamilton, 2008; McCroskey PRCA/PRPSA norms) find 70% to 85% prevalence for public speaking anxiety depending on severity thresholds.
Cross-cultural studies across dozens of nations (including the US, Japan, China, Finland, Sweden, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and India) have consistently documented communication apprehension across every cultural group surveyed.

Checked against

[1] revistacomunicar.com [2] ijip.in [3] chegg.com [4] macrothink.org [5] europeanproceedings.com [6] ijcrt.org [7] ed.gov [8] jamescmccroskey.com

communication anxiety 85 percent research McCroskey "cross-cultural" PRCA-24 "McCroskey" "culture" "Burnley" "Cross" "Spanos" "85" public speaking "85 percent" "glossophobia" OR "speech anxiety" "cross-cultural" "communication apprehension" McCroskey prevalence communication apprehension documented across every culture studied "every culture studied" "communication apprehension" OR "communication anxiety" OR "public speaking"

assessed as of 2026-08-27

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