60 female undergraduates, classified as having high fear or low fear of snakes, were asked to approach a snake twice. Between approaches 20 Ss observed, in the same situation, a confederate who acted quite frightened. 20 Ss observed a confederate who acted calmly, and 20 Ss simply waited 5 min. between approaches. Using the change in distance from the snake as the dependent variable, high-fear Ss approached closer following observation of a calmly acting confederate. The results are discussed in terms of a social learning theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)