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CHAPTER 7 178 the Exposure + approach condition tended to perceive more control ( M = 76.78, SD = 15.23) during exposure trials than participants in Exposure only ( M = 67.06, SD = 22.37). Figure 3. Exposure + approach and Exposure only time course of steps performed (left) and corresponding fear (right) during exposure trials. DISCUSSION This study aimed to investigate the role of approach behavior during exposure by testing the effect of pulling a feared stimulus, i.e., a spider, toward you during exposure on spider fear. Compared to a no-exposure control condition and in line with our hypothesis, repeated exposure to a spider led to a decrease in spider fear on a self-report and behavioral measure. However, in contrast to the hypothesis, the approach manipulation did not show an additional effect on any of the spider fear measures: Repeated exposure to the spider by pulling it toward you and by having the experimenter pull it toward you caused similar drops in spider fear. No effects were found on the implicit (affective priming) measure of spider fear. There was a trend for participants who pulled the spider toward them during exposure to report 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 BAT step Trials 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 BAT fear Trials Exposure + approach Exposure only