The Set of Fear Inducing Pictures (SFIP): Development and validation in fearful and nonfearful individuals

Emotionally charged pictorial materials are frequently used in phobia research but there exist no standardized picture database dedicated to study different phobias. The present work describes the results of two independent studies that sought to develop and validate this type of database - a Set of Fear Inducing Pictures (SFIP). In study 1, 270 fear-relevant and 130 neutral stimuli were rated for fear, arousal and valence by four groups of subjects; small animal (N=34), blood/injection (N=26), social fearful (N=35) and non-fearful participants (N=22). Results from study 1 were employed to develop the final version of the SFIP that includes fear-relevant images of social exposure (N=40), blood/injection (N=80), spider/bugs (N=80), angry faces (N=30) and 726 neutral photographs. Study 2 aimed at validating the SFIP in a sample of spider, blood/injection, social fearful and control individuals (N=66). Fear-relevant images were rated as more unpleasant and lead to higher fear and arousal in fearful when compared to non-fearful individuals. Fear images differentiated between the three fear groups in the expected direction. In overall, the present findings provide evidence for a high validity of the SFIP and confirmed that that the set may be successfully used in phobia research.