Arachnophobics can be desensitized by showing them spider pictures and live spiders over a long time, in a non-threatening environment.
I propose glasses with integrated HUD, that present a picture of a spider for subliminally short intervals, whenever the heart rate sensor on the side-pieces of the glasses detects that the wearer is not stressed. The short intervals make sure the wearer does not react to the images eg. while driving a car.
This might work for other phobias, where the stimulus is something that can be presented via pictures or sounds.-- loonquawl, Mar 27 2009 Desensitization with subliminal pics http://books.google...&ct=result#PPA70,M1 [loonquawl, Mar 27 2009] I'm not sure how good the evidence for treating phobias with ultra short subliminal images is. Don't people afraid of the dark blink?-- shudderprose, Mar 27 2009 @[bigsleep]: Phobias are far beyond the scope of any helpful fear-response. Desensitization does not make you blind to the stimulus
@[shudderprose]: People afraid of 'the dark' usually are not afraid of blindfolding, and blinking, just as saccades, is perceptually different than blindfolding for the same duration. As for subliminal images in desensitization : See link, i read it as 'jury's still out'.-- loonquawl, Mar 27 2009 //This might work for other phobias// what if you're a homophobe ?-- FlyingToaster, Mar 27 2009 "....I don't know, I just put my glasses on and he ran out screaming."-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 27 2009 This is very unpleasant.-- blissmiss, Mar 27 2009 //what if you're a homophobe//
homophobes and homosexuals alike might benefit from/ like these glasses in the flashed-gay-porn variant.-- loonquawl, Mar 28 2009 k, I can't see this ending well at all: if you're going to try to get used to a stress-producing situation, I think it's better to do it yourself rather than some piece of machinery that randomly causes you fear of otherwise innocuous situations. The only possible upside I can see is it might play your fears off against being lazy, ie: seeking out napping opportunities sort of thing... still [-]-- FlyingToaster, Mar 28 2009 valid point [Flying Toaster] - but i guess the situations in which the device would activate would be too diverse to actually have the effect you hint at, eg. linking some daily activity to fear. But if, for some reason, the device would only activate during, say, your breakfast, this might indeed lead to a certain queasiness in reagrd to breakfasting.
Perhaps a little indicator could light up after the subliminal image (that, true to its nature will have not be detected easily) so the user can decide whether it activates too often in one type of situation.-- loonquawl, Mar 28 2009 random, halfbakery