U.S. Adults’ Perceptions of Six Possible Global Threats and Hazards

In this brief report, RAND presents the public’s perceptions of six categories of risk using data from a survey fielded to a nationally representative sample of 8,793 adults from the RAND American Life Panel. The results reflect respondents’ perceptions of risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), asteroids and comets hitting Earth, severe changes to Earth’s climate, nuclear war, severe pandemics, and supervolcanoes.After AI, the threats and hazards generating the most concern were nuclear war, severe pandemics, and severe changes to Earth’s climate.