Fear of Spiders: What Really Helps

A two-week exposure plan can help reduce fear of spiders in a structured way, says fear researcher Zwanzger. All you need to start with is image and video material of spiders. You look at this at regular intervals for about five to ten minutes and increase the intensity of the stimulus from time to time.

Starting with still images of small spiders, you slowly feel your way through moving videos to an encounter with a large spider, for example in the zoo. The final step is touching a spider.

At all steps, emerging feelings should be logged in order to be able to understand how the fear changes.

1st step: still images of small to large spiders

2nd step: moving videos of small to large spiders

3rd step: Encountering a real spider up to touching it

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