Psychologists at the University of Manchester in Britain have come up with a new way to help people overcome their fear of spiders, by giving them more control over their environment.

A team led by Dr. Warren Mansell put test subjects with severe arachnophobia in front of a screen where they could themselves control how close or far away a spider would appear. Within a short amount of time, their fear had diminished.

The findings have now been published in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

“It is vital for a client to have control over their experience of important elements of the environment like the sources of threat, because control itself is pivotal for health and well-being,” Mansell said.

"After completing a simple task in which they could move an image of a spider closer or further away on a computer screen, people who had control over their virtual distance from the spider actually got closer to the spider after completing the task.”

“They also reported avoiding spiders less in their everyday lives two weeks later, despite their fear, and without any prompting to do so," Mansell added. 

He concluded: "This implies that therapists treating phobias and anxiety may not need to encourage or direct their clients to face their fears, as is often assumed.”

This could have far-reaching consequences for other types of fear therapy, the researchers hoped.

"In future we need to see whether this kind of simple intervention can make a lasting difference to the distress and disruption phobias can have in people's lives,” said Mansell.

(With inputs from Xinhua)