Don’t worry !: This app puts spiders on our hands | Life & Knowledge

by time news

Ugh spider!

Around 10 percent of people worldwide suffer from an animal phobia and most of them are afraid of the little eight-legged creatures. Now a mobile phone app could help these people.

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a smartphone app that can playfully alleviate the fear of crawling animals.

As the Team from Basel reported in the journal “Journal of Anxiety Disorders” that after two weeks of using the app, people with spider fear or disgust were better able to get closer to a real spider in a glass case than those who had not used the app.

Phobias of all kinds affect between three and 15 percent of people in the course of their lives, according to the study. Pronounced fear of spiders is called arachnophobia. People who are affected by this sometimes have to restrict themselves in their everyday life: some avoid being outdoors, others search every room meticulously for the crawly animals or never go to basements or attics. According to the study, many people did not seek professional help out of shame.

The smartphone app “Phobys” can be used discreetly at home for mild forms of fear of spiders.

Virtual spiders

▶︎ The app shows virtual spiders. They can only be viewed from a distance, then closer, and finally they move. If you point the mobile phone camera at your own hand, you can use the app to put a very real-looking digital spider on the back of your hand.

“For people who are afraid of spiders, it is easier to expose themselves to a virtual spider than to a real one,” said one of the authors, Anja Zimmer. The developers built the app like a mobile game. The exercises become more and more difficult over several levels. In the end, a lot of virtual spiders crawl around.

66 people with spider fear were involved in the study. Half of them completed six half-hour training sessions over two weeks. Detailed surveys revealed that the use of the app had significantly reduced the fear of spiders.

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