EXPERIMENTAL DESENSITIZATION OF SNAKE-AVOIDANCE AFTER AN INSTRUCTIONAL MANIPULATION.

The article focuses on experimental desensitization of snake-avoidance after an instructional manipulation. Two groups of 9 subjects were desensitized individually along a snake-approach hierarchy, after they had received different instructions about the purpose of the experiment. One group was told that the experiments were studying a form of therapy, while the other was told that the experiments were studying the physiological responses that accompany fear. Changes in snake-avoidance for the two groups were compared with each other, and with changes generated by two control treatments. The instructional manipulation had no impact on the outcome of semi-automated desensitization.