Abstract
Spider-fearful persons are more reluctant to approach spiders and, if possible, tend to avoid their feared animal. These behavioural tendencies play a major role in the maintenance of their phobia. The present study is the first to motivate spider fearfuls approaching spiders in an approach-avoidance conflict. This was accomplished by using a virtual reality paradigm in which the participants had the choice between a safe, low rewarding, stimulus and a conflict symbol that signaled the occurrence of a high reward (80% of the trials) or a spider (20% of the trials). The results indicate that the virtual spider was capable of eliciting a strong fear response and that spider fearfuls can overcome their avoidance tendency in favour of a goal-directed approach response. Though no direct relation was observed between approach behaviour and a reduction in fear, spider fearfuls did report less spider fear, tension and disgust after the task. These results are promising for development of new treatment options for specific phobias.
Highlights
Fear and anxiety are normal protective reactions to threatening or harmful stimuli
Note that using a median split of the Spider Phobia Questionnaire (SPQ) and Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) scores resulted in the same high- and low-fearful groups
behavioural avoidance test (BAT) performance with virtual reality (VR)-BAT moment as within-subjects factor and group as between-subjects factor. These analyses revealed that at Virtual Reality Behavioural Avoidance Test (VR-BAT)#2 participants approached the spider closer, F(1, 41)=8.33, p
Summary
Fear and anxiety are normal protective reactions to (potentially) threatening or harmful stimuli. Detection of these stimuli activates cognitive, affective, physiological, and behavioural processes that foster survival. Persons with specific phobias are usually aware of their unreasonable fear and tend to avoid the feared object or situation excessively [1]. This avoidance behaviour can help to reduce anxious mood states of a patient by minimizing encounters of the dreaded object or situation. Avoidance is considered as a major factor in the maintenance of phobias as it hinders habituation or adequate processing of fear-related stimuli [2,3]
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