Hantu is only #3 on Malaysians’ most feared list. Guess what’s at #1?

As it turns out, 31 October wasn’t the scariest date of the year for Malaysia. Most of us only got properly scared on 19 November. Y’all remember what happened right?

Even with that sleepless night, we wanted more thrills! So after roping in our buddies from Tune Protect, an online provider of comprehensive and affordable protection plans, we came up with the Morbid Malaysian Survey, in which we asked Malaysians some pretty macabre stuff. Like what are Malaysians most afraid of? How would they react when they see a ghost? When would they like to die? You know, the usual conversation starters.

After three weeks (from Oct 20 to Nov 12), we’ve managed to collect 1,577 responses (thanks guys!) and got some interesting results. But before we dive deeper, here are some information about our respondents:

• More women (62%) than men (36%) participated, along with 2% others.
• Most of our respondents are quite young: 53% were millennials, 33.4% were Gen Zs, 11.6% were Gen Xs (11.6%), 1.3% were Baby Boomers (1.3%), and 0.5% from the WWII generations (Tun M, is that you?)
• They speak combinations of English (74.8%), Malay (61.1%), Chinese dialects (17.2%), Indian dialects (11.3%), and others (6%).
• The biggest groups are from Selangor/Putrajaya (30.6%), KL (18.1%), Sarawak (9.1%), Penang (6.8%), and Johor (6.8%), but we’ve got representatives of each state (and even from overseas!)

With that in mind, let’s start off with a rather surprising finding…

1. 70% of our respondents had a brush with the paranormal before (!!)

Are ghosts and supernatural phenomena real?

When we asked our respondents whether they’ve had a paranormal experience before, only 7.2% said no… meaning that the remaining 92.8% acknowledged the supernatural in some way:

• 36.4% claimed they have experienced something paranormal first-hand
• 34% think they did, but they’re not 100% sure if it’s paranormal
• 22.4% said they haven’t themselves, but they know someone who has. Perhaps their half-cousin’s mother-in-law’s grandfather’s uncle.

Wahlao so many got touched by the unknown! But what would they do if they actually saw a ghost? Apparently not much, as the top two answers mostly had to do with not acknowledging the spirits:

• 41.6% say they would continue whatever they’re doing – the “I don’t kacau you, you don’t kacau me” approach.
• 37.3% say they will pretend to not see the ghost, and escape when they get the chance.

While we’re here scrutinizing who’s scared of what…

2. Chinese dialect speakers believe in the supernatural the least, but…

The supernatural realm is wide and scary, so what supernatural stuff are Malaysians scared of, specifically? The top three answers are…

1. punishment in the afterlife (59.5%) – especially high for our Malay-speaking respondents (80.1%)
2. ghosts (48.3%)
3. demons (38.8%)

Looking deeper into the demographics, Chinese dialect speakers are the least likely to believe in the supernatural, with 22.7% of them picking the option, more than double compared to other dialect speakers. However, they are more likely than average to avoid dirty places and offend the spirits. Very practical.

On the other hand, Indian dialect speakers seem to fear the supernatural the most, like ghosts (22% more scared than the average), demons (16% more than average), and witchcraft and bomohs (27% more than average). Interestingly, despite the prevalence of possession-themed Malay horror movies, Malay speakers fear possession and hysteria the least (22.4%) compared to Chinese (31%) and Indian (36.1%) dialect speakers.

Well, fearing ghosts is one thing, but what about becoming one? Here are the things that Malaysians would like to do if they ever become a spectral entity:

1. fly around and travel the world (35.5%),
2. haunt someone they don’t like (21.8%), and
3. find a way to communicate with the living (12.9%)

If you do get haunted though, it’s most likely by the Baby Boomers, because 40% of respondents from that generation said they’d like to haunt someone they don’t like. Still think Gen Zs are the scary ones?

Anyway, enough of the supernatural stuff. Moving on to some very real fears…

3. Death and dying tops Malaysians’ real-world fears list

Well, 2.7% of our respondents have no real-world fears (wah so carefree!). But for the rest, their top real-world fears are…

1. Death, either their own or a loved one’s (45%)
2. Getting an incurable/critical illness (34.8%)
3. War (33.5%)
4. Their bank account balance (32.3%)

What’s scarier, fear #2 can also intensify fear #4, especially with the exorbitant medical bills that #2 usually brings. There are of course protection plans you can take to cover both, and our friends from Tune Protect have some affordable plans to set you up. We’ll talk about that later in this article. In the meantime, let’s talk about the thing Malaysians find most scary first: death.

When asked about when they would like to die, only 9.1% of our respondents say before they’re 55, while another 19.1% want to live beyond 90. Most (44.8%) picked the natural route though, opting to die sometime between 70 to 90 years old.

However, when we asked them when they think they would ACTUALLY die, the number of people picking 70 to 90 years old decreased to 34.8%. After some calculations, it seems that the average age Malaysians think they would die is 67. Essentially, our respondents think they won’t live as long as they want to.

As for how they think they will die…

• 36.3% expect to die of old age, surrounded by friends and family
• 26.5% expect to die of an illness caused by their own lifestyle
• 8.7% expect to die of something unexpected, like an accident

Whichever way you die, what comes afterwards is a mystery, but here are the most common beliefs of our respondents:

• 61.9% expect judgment and the afterlife – especially for our Malay-speaking friends
• 21.1% expect to return to nothingness
• 7.7% expect to be reincarnated

Interestingly, 13 of our respondents expect to be lifted as a minor deity or saint after their passing, so don’t forget to bless us k? On to the next finding!

4. 59% of Malaysians would (hypothetically) fake their own death

Now we’re getting into some hypotheticals! When asked whether they would fake their own death, a surprising 58.8% of Malaysians said they would. The reasons are different, though:

• 18% would do it to see who comes to their funeral (aww)
• 40.8% will consider it to run away and start a new life.

We then asked Malaysians a tougher question: if they suddenly get a terminal illness, would they prefer dying sooner or delaying it with treatment?

As expected of a tough decision, the results are almost evenly split.

• 53% chose to live 10 years with frequent trips to the hospital for treatment
• 47% chose to live 1 year without treatment

So why would some Malaysians choose a faster death than getting a terminal illness? When asked what they’re scared of most about falling sick, the top three answers are…

1. becoming a burden to their loved ones (70.5%),
2. becoming disabled/bedridden for life (62%), and
3. losing their source of income (27.5%).

Anyways, with so much to fear in this world, one might wonder…

5. How do they cope with these fears?

With death and financially-crippling illnesses being the top two real fears on Malaysians’ minds, what are they doing to address it? Well, to extend their lifespans…

• 63.5% have started eating more fruits and vegetables
• 55.9% have started working out
• 35.5% are going for regular health checkups

While they’re not in the top three, we’d like to say good job to the 18.8% who stopped smoking, vaping and drinking! It’s also nice to mention that 19.9% of our Gen Z respondents are within this group. Wah, quitting so early!

As for their financial worries,

• 57.6% have forced themselves to save money
• 30.1% have learned new skills for a side income
• 25.6% have taken insurance for rainy days

And out of curiosity, we also asked them how much they would pay for insurance each month. Most of our respondents are willing to pay somewhere between RM10 to RM500 each month, but the most common range is between RM100 to RM250 monthly (27.2%).

That seems reasonable, but…

Did you know insurance nowadays can be scary cheap?

Well, we know from our survey that 19% of our respondents are scared of insurance, but we’re sure they haven’t heard of Tune Protect‘s very non-intimidating Critical Safe+ plans.

Unlike medical cards that cover your medical bills, Tune Protect’s Critical Safe+ plans will give you a chunk of money once you get diagnosed with a critical illness on their list. You can then use that money for practically anything, either for transport to the hospital, getting medications, or even to cover your living expenses.

If you’re scared of insurance agents, you can simply buy the plan online and get a 15% discount for that! So you can dampen your fear of both critical illnesses and your bank account balance from as low as RM4.54* a month!

Behold! By choosing how many critical illnesses you want covered and how big a payout (a.k.a. sum insured) you need, you can get an instant quotation! These are the prices for a 24-year old non-smoking guy who wants a RM30,000 coverage:

As if it couldn’t get any less intimidating, Tune Protect also has the 3:3:3 promise that will remove more of your insurance-related fears!

• you can buy these plans within 3 minutes,
• you can get a response to your claim within 3 hours, and
• you can get your payout in just 3 working days after your claim is approved.

So not scary right? But if it’s still quite horrifying to you, get this: if you don’t receive your payout after 3 working days, Tune Protect will pay another 1% on top of your sum insured. So if you’re covered for RM100k, you’ll get another RM1k bonus for the delay!

Wah it’s so good it’s giving us a panic attack! To calm ourselves down before leaving, as is customary with our surveys, here are some extra trivia we can’t fit anywhere else in the article:

• For some reason, respondents from Negeri Sembilan are the most likely to claim they have first-hand experience of the paranormal (57.1%), whereas Pahang respondents are the least likely (23.1%) to claim that. Could Negeri Sembilan be Malaysia’s hidden paranormal hotbed?
• 4.4% of Malaysians would peep at people in the shower if they become a ghost. And they’re mostly men.
• More Malaysians are scared of the dentist (6.3%) than their mother-in-law (1.4%). And of all the people who are scared of MILs, women make up an overwhelming supermajority.
• While the thought of war is scary, it’s especially horrifying for the Baby Boomers (46.7%) compared to other generations.
• Perhaps surprisingly, the more you earn each month, the more scared you are of your account bank balance: only 30% of those earning less than RM2k picked this option, compared to 34.4% of those earning between RM2k-4k and 36.7% of those earning between RM4k-6k.
• For fun, we asked Malaysians which disease they think killed the most Malaysians in 2021. 49.4% picked heart diseases, which is the correct answer. Congrats! Shoutout to the 3 people who answered Alzheimer’s though.

That’s all, and don’t let your lives be surrounded by mystery!