Auburn, AL–It has been known for a long time that one way to get rid of a fear is to confront it. That’s especially true if the confrontation is done gradually and under the supervision of a professional.

Now F. Dudley McGlynn, Michael P. Rose, and Alejandro Lazarte of Auburn University have shed light on activities that may improve that process.

McGlynn, Rose and Lazarte recruited college women who were highly afraid of spiders and roaches. Then they had the women sit before a conveyor belt on which a spider or a roach would gradually be pulled closer to them. On some occasions the women were even able to move the belt closer themselves.

The researchers found that the women were most fearful when they (the women) were in charge of moving the conveyor belt. The answer may lie in the focus of the women’s attention.

Another part of the experiment examined the women’s attention. Were they concentrating on the spider or cockroach? Or were they thinking more about their own reaction to the sight of it getting closer? And, if they were instructed to focus on one or the other, would one of these directions for their attention produce less fear than the other?

When the women were asked to focus their attention on the size of the spider or cockroach, its texture, its position, and the like, they experienced less fear than when they focused on their own heartbeats, breathing, goose bumps and the like.

The authors cautioned that all of this is at a highly experimental stage and say that they plan to continue their research into this scary situation in the near future.

McGlynn, F. D., Rose, M. P., & Lazarte, A. (1994). Control and attention during exposure influence arousal and fear among insect phobics. Behavior Modification, 18, 371-388.

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