Thaindian News

Washington, Feb 23 (IANS) The more you fear a spider, the bigger it insect will seem to be. Simply told, fearing something only magnifies its hold on you and distracts you.

This perception doesn’t actually interfere with daily living, but people with a phobia of needles, for whatever reason, could cause them to avoid injections.

A better grasp of how a phobia affects perception of feared objects can help doctors design more effective remedies for such people, the Journal of Anxiety Disorders reports.

“If one is afraid of spiders, and by virtue of being afraid of spiders one tends to perceive spiders as bigger than they really are, that may feed the fear, foster that fear, and make it difficult to overcome,” said Michael Vasey, professor of psychology at Ohio State Universit, who led the study.

“When it comes to phobias, it is all about avoidance as a primary means of keeping oneself safe. As long as you avoid, you can’t discover that you’re wrong. And you’re stuck,” added Vasey, according to an Ohio statement.

“So to the extent that perceiving spiders as bigger than they really are fosters fear and avoidance, it then potentially is part of this cycle that feeds the phobia that leads to its persistence,” said Vasey.

Participants who feared spiders were asked to undergo five encounters with live spiders - tarantulas, in fact - and then provide size estimates of the spiders after those encounters ended.

“We’re trying to understand why phobias persist so we can better target treatments to change those reasons they persist,” concludes Vasey.