Credibility ratings for desensitization and pseudotherapy among moderately and mildly snake-avoidant college students.

Twenty moderately avoidant and 20 mildly avoidant Ss were chosen as though they were to participate in a snake-avoidance desensitization experiment. After relaxation training, Ss listened to a taped excerpt of either desensitization or pseudotherapy and responded to a 5-item questionnaire that assessed the credibility of the treatment. Mildly avoidant Ss rated desensitization as more credible than pseudotherapy. The implication of this finding is that a great many experimental studies of systematic desensitization have failed to control satisfactorily for the operation of expectancy effects and nonspecific forms of behavioral influence.