What you don’t know, can’t hurt you: The differential effect of masked versus non-masked counterconditioning and mere exposure to spider pictures on women’s affective evaluation of spiders.

Previous research has shown that repeated exposure to masked spiders was effective in reducing psychophysiological and behavioural fear responses, but appeared ineffective in changing subjective feelings towards spiders. The present study investigated in an unselected female sample if masked counterconditioning would be more effective in reducing the dislike of a spider compared to masked exposure per se, and if masked counterconditioning would also be more effective than a non-masked (common) counterconditioning procedure.

Women with varying levels of spider aversion (N = 272) were randomly assigned to four conditions. Three pictures of a spider were always (counterconditioning) or never (exposure) followed by a smiling face. For half of the participants in each condition the spiders were masked.