Is the placebo-distraction behaviorally preferred when regulating fear of unpleasant pictures?
SHOCKS
Similar to the behavioral choice results we observed with fear of shocks, while anticipating possible unpleasant pictures, participants’ preference for the placebo-distraction differed from a 50% no preference rate [Out of all the above reported results, we found one case of an interaction with the type of distraction used for the placebo condition. Specifically, participants chose the placebo-distraction more when it involved thinking about writing letters, relative to thinking about drawing shapes [The current sample was unbalanced in terms of sex, with 10 men and 22 women. Nonetheless, following recent recommendations to account for sex effects in placebo research