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7 ACTIVE APPROACH DOES NOT ADD TO THE EFFECTS OF IN VIVO EXPOSURE 167 i.e., not responding to a positive picture, led to devaluation of the valence of that picture (Veling, Holland, & van Knippenberg, 2008). However, when it comes to reducing the negative valence of stimuli by approach behavior, matters are somewhat complex. Veling and colleagues (2008) reasoned that the devaluation effect would not occur for negative stimuli, because negative stimuli can elicit both fight (approach) and flight (avoidance) behavior. Yet an approach training to photographs of black people decreased racial bias to black people on an implicit and a behavioral measure (Kawakami, Phills, Steele, & Dovidio, 2007), suggesting a decrease in negative valence. Whether approach behavior can also reduce fear, an issue that is highly relevant for the understanding of ERP effects, is the aim of the current study. Approach to a fearful stimulus inevitably causes exposure, which leads to extinction. Therefore the additional effect of approach behavior during exposure was investigated. Spider fearful individuals were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) Exposure + approach, (2) Exposure only, or (3) no exposure (Control). Approach was operationalized as activation of the flexor muscle of the arm (cf. Cacioppo et al., 1993; Förster, 2003; Kawakami et al., 2007; Neumann & Strack, 2000; Wiers et al., 2010; Wiers et al., 2011), by pulling a cart with a jar containing a live spider toward you. This operationalization enabled repeated exposure trials without the participant moving away from the spider (i.e., avoidance). Additionally, it ensured a maximum amount of activation of the arm flexor muscle during each trial for participants in the Exposure + approach group. To prevent the approach manipulation from resulting in more exposure in the Exposure + approach group than in the Exposure only group, the only difference between these conditions was that in the Exposure only group during exposure trials the experimenter pulled cart with the spider toward the participant. Effects on spider fear were measured with a self-report, behavioral, and implicit measure. It was expected that exposure would lead to a decrease in spider fear on all measures, compared to no exposure, and that Exposure + approach would lead to more decrease than Exposure only. Perceived control may be increased by the