Facilitating Public Speaking Fear Reduction by Increasing the Salience of Disconfirmatory Evidence

The primary objective of the current study was to investigate whether adding videotape feedback procedures to exposure treatment would facilitate public speaking fear reduction. Participants meeting DSM-IV criteria for social phobia were randomized to receive non-pill placebo, exposure without videotape feedback, exposure with audience videotape feedback, or exposure with performance videotape feedback. Assessments were conducted at pretreatment, posttreatment, and 1-month follow-up. Having participants contrast actual audience responses to responses they imagined did not facilitate changes in participants’ predictions about the negative consequences of appearing anxious in front of others, nor did it result in greater anxiety reduction compared to exposure alone. On the other hand, having participants contrast their imagined performance to their actual performance accelerated the speed of improvement in public