Americans and Middle Easterners are scared of the same thing after all

What are you most scared of?

Pew Research did a study of people around the world and their "perceptions of international challenges," which really is just a fancy way of saying Pew did a study about what freaks people out the most.  

Key among their findings was the fact that the most people in the United States are the most scared of the same thing that the most people in the Middle East are the most scared about. And that thing is, drum roll … the Islamic State! 

Call it the caliphate that finally brought the world together.

Pew asked 45,435 people in 40 countries how concerned they were about various issues. In addition to the Islamic State, Pew's list included climate change, global economic instability, tensions with Russia, territorial disputes in China, cyber attacks and Iran's nuclear program — all scary.

Just not as scary as the Islamic State. 

Pew's study reports that the majority of Americans (68 percent) put IS at the top of their list of things to be "very concerned" about. Canadians (58 percent) did too, incidentally.

It is perhaps unsurprising that fears in the Middle East center around IS, given the proximity of the current conflict. Eighty-four percent of people in Lebanon (which is next to Syria) put IS at the top of their list, followed by 62 percent in Jordan and 54 percent in Palestine.

"Fear is especially high among Muslims in Lebanon, Syria’s western neighbor: 90 percent of Sunnis and 87 percent of Shia say they are very concerned, compared with 76 percent of Christians," says the study.

And let's not forget about Europe, where people are also scared of the extremist group. There, an average 70 percent express serious concerns about IS above all else, with Spain leading the pack at 77 percent. 

What about Latin America and Africa, you ask? Don't they know know about IS? They do, but it's climate change fears that take the cake in those regions. It's no coincidence that both of those areas are particularly vulnerable to its effects.

Check out Pew's full report on the study for more.