"a general fear" is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You can use it to refer to a feeling that is shared by a large number of people. For example, "The news of the rising coronavirus cases created a general fear among the public."
It was also spurred by the rise of Pan-Germanism and by a general fear of Russian expansion.
In the PCA, 33.5% of the variation in responses was explained by a single factor, interpreted as a general fear factor.
Some of the anxiety may be explained by worries about economics, language, crime and a general fear of the outside world raised by terrorism.
Among many students, he said, more traditional ideas of hell exist as unexamined background images that they carry with them along with a general fear of the unknown.
Part comes from a general fear of food: for many of us, the natural state of the egg is a McMuffin; a raw egg demands more of a commitment.
Even the town house and luxury markets, hit hard by weak Wall Street bonuses at the end of 2001 and a general fear to commit, are starting to move, agents say.
It is important to notice that, even when adequately informed, some patients may still favour MT as a means to cope with a more general fear of cancer.
It is a proxy issue, uniting outright xenophobia and racism with a much more general fear of globalisation, of the forces of change tearing through the international labour market and of the consequent surge in population mobility.
Instead, a much more general "fear of dying alone" is one of the two main problems.
Despite a sharp decline in visa requests after Sept. 11, a reflection of the general fear of traveling, especially to New York City, the number of applicants in Russia has risen again to normal levels, Mr. Warlick said.
Conservative rebels, led by Dominic Grieve, a lawmaker and a former attorney general, feared that without a specific, legal, guarantee of a vote, Parliament might find itself being bypassed at the last minute.
