Can describing your emotions and feelings be an effective strategy to combat fear? Could it help us feel less anxious and control fear? These questions were posed by researchers at UCLA, who suggest that labeling emotions right when we are experiencing them helps us eliminate fear.
Minimize or recognize fears: What is the winning strategy?
Neither quick nor lazy, these researchers recruited 88 people who were afraid of spiders. The objective was for them to approach a huge live tarantula that was inside an open container. Participants were told they could get as close as they wanted and could even touch the spider if they wanted.
The people were divided into four groups. A first group was asked to describe the emotions they were experiencing and to label their reactions to the tarantula. For example, they could say: “I am anxious and scared because this spider is scary to me.”
In a second group, people had to use more neutral terms that did not convey their fear or disgust, thus trying to make the experience seem less threatening. For example, they could say: “That little spider can’t hurt me, I’m not afraid of it .” It is worth clarifying that this is the approach with which we normally try to combat fear. That is, minimizing the things we fear and trying to convince ourselves that fear does not exist.
In a third group, the subjects simply had to say something irrelevant and in a fourth group, people had to remain silent. What happened? What was the best strategy to combat fear?
A week later, all people were asked to return to the laboratory to be exposed to the tarantula again while their physiological responses were monitored. Thus, it could be seen that the people in the first group (those who recognized fear and verbalized their emotions) got closer to the spider, showing less fear. In fact, the researchers themselves were amazed that such a minimal intervention produced such surprising results.
The power of emotions to combat fear
Researchers think that the simple act of recognizing our emotions and expressing them verbally becomes a transition process. That is, it allows us to become aware of what is happening, giving meaning to what we are experiencing. And we already know that when we have an explanation at hand, the feeling of control increases and that generates security and trust.
The curious thing was that the more negative words were used, the less fear people experienced and the closer they got to the spider. In other words, the description of the tarantula as a terrifying reality was very beneficial in combating the fear it inspired.
Obviously, this is a very interesting paradigm shift, especially since most people try to combat fear by convincing themselves that it does not exist. However, our brain is not stupid and we cannot always convince it that the physiological reactions it is perceiving are not due to fear. Therefore, the next time you have to fight fear, perhaps you can use this strategy, it could give you good results.
Source:
Tabibnia, G.; Lieberman, MD & Craske, MG (2008) The lasting effect of words on feelings: Words may facilitate exposure effects to threatening images. Emotion; 8(3): 307-317.
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