IF YOU break out in a cold sweat at the thought of eight hairy legs, “invisible” images could help.
at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, found that exposing people to subliminal spider images helped them to overcome their fear.
The usual treatment for phobias is maximum exposure to what you fear. To make things easier, Weinberger’s team asked 23 volunteers who were afraid of spiders to stare at an “x” on a screen as 20 images of spiders or outdoor scenes flashed onto the screen. The images appeared too briefly to be perceived.
Advertisement
Following treatment, volunteers shown spider images were able to lift the lid off of a spider tank, while those who saw landscapes could only touch the tank ().
The team suggest that repeated exposure to frightening stimuli without conscious perception creates non-threatening associations with spiders that override ingrained fear responses within the amygdala, a brain area involved in emotional memory.
“It is impressive that such an effect can occur rapidly without the participants’ awareness,” says at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
