Discover the surprising link between conquering fears and unleashing a domino effect of self-improvement in this groundbreaking study redefining traditional understandings of behavioral therapy.
Fear is a powerful emotion that often manifests in various forms, and it is not uncommon for individuals to grapple with multiple fears simultaneously.
Traditionally, the treatment of different fears has been approached with tailored exposure therapies specific to each fear. However, a groundbreaking study published in Translational Psychiatry challenges this conventional wisdom, suggesting that conquering one fear can have a domino effect on others.
The study was conducted by psychologists at the Department of Behavioral and Clinical Neuroscience at Ruhr University Bochum. It reveals that exposure therapy targeted at one fear, such as spiders, can unexpectedly lead to a reduction in another fear, like fear of heights:
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“The researchers measured fear of spiders and heights in 50 test subjects before and after exposure therapy targeting spider fear. Measures included subjective data from specific questionnaires for fear of spiders and heights. In addition, the researchers collected quantitative behavioral measures, such as how close the participants dared to approach the spiders or how far they could climb a high church tower.”
While the intervention was focused on fear of spiders, participants also showed a 15% reduction in fear of heights. Why did this happen? The researchers propose that the effect may be linked to an increase in confidence and self-efficacy resulting from successful exposure therapy.
Our fears can feel permanent and insurmountable in the moment, especially if we have been struggling with them for the majority of our lives. Many people can’t even imagine themselves living a life without these fears and anxieties.
After successfully overcoming one fear, we feel more capable of overcoming others. We begin to ask ourselves, “If I can overcome this, what else can I overcome?”
All you need to do is prove yourself wrong once to open the door to new possibilities.
Our thoughts, emotions, and habits can feel “sticky,” as if they are an essential part of our identity, but often we have more power to change ourselves than we realize, especially when we are equipped with the right tools, advice, and perspective.
Exposure therapy is a system of tools and techniques that can be applied to a wide-range of different fears. One common method is to create an anxiety hierarchy, which breaks down one fear or anxiety into multiple situations (from “low anxiety” → “medium anxiety” → “high anxiety”).
The basic idea is to start by only exposing yourself to “low anxiety” situations, then as you get more comfortable, work your way up to more intense situations until the entire fear has been extinguished or minimized.
Step by step, fears can be gradually overcome once we start small and slowly build more confidence in ourselves along the way. This domino effect applies not only to overcoming fears and anxiety, but also to self-improvement in general.
The Domino Effect and Self-Improvement
Many aspects of self-improvement follow a type of domino effect. The most important thing is getting started and pushing over that first domino – thereby setting a course of action in motion.
According to the physics of motivation, the first step is to overcome inertia. An object at rest remains at rest until it is acted on by an outside force. Without an initial spark of energy, we are unlikely to motivate ourselves to make any significant change.
To overcome inertia, we have to think small – any step in the right direction is better than none at all.
Many people resist change because they conceive the “first step” or “first domino” as being too large or too difficult, so they are never able to muster up the energy or willpower to follow through.
A person who wants to be more healthy and fit may rationalize, “I want to exercise more, but…first I need to go to the gym to get a membership, then I need to get new running shoes, then I need to ask my friend if they want to join me, then I need to do research on what the best workout is…” and before you know it, weeks have passed and they don’t even bother doing any of those things.
The stronger the inertia, the smaller you need to think to get things in motion.
The answer depends on the person. Maybe “first workout at the gym” is too big of a first step. Maybe the smallest step you can take is just writing down the number of the gym and putting it on your to-do list or whiteboard to call them this week. Motivation requires self-awareness and creativity. You need to know how your mind works and be able to brainstorm ways to set it on the right path.
Find your first domino – then push it.
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