Assessment of the Emotional Freedom Technique: An alternative treatment for fear

Dismantling study👥 119 participants⚖️ vs. placebo treatment; modeling treatment; no-treatment controlModerate rigor✓ Source-checked📍 United States

In plain English. This early dismantling study split 119 students into four groups to test whether the specific 'tapping on meridians' part of EFT is what makes it work, compared to a placebo version and a modeling (watching someone else) version. All three active-seeming treatments reduced fear about equally, while doing nothing did not - leading the authors to argue that EFT's benefit may come from things it shares with ordinary exposure therapy rather than anything unique to tapping meridians specifically. This is an important, honestly-reported critical study: it doesn't support the idea that meridian tapping itself is special, and the Evidence Atlas includes it because omitting critical findings would be dishonest.

What they found

119

people took part

The EFT group showed a significant decrease in self-report fear measures at post-treatment, but so did the placebo and modeling groups, while the no-treatment control group did not; the authors concluded this does not support EFT's effects being uniquely dependent on meridian tapping.

How the study worked

Who took partuniversity students (n=119)

What they didThis dismantling study compared standard tapping against a modified version to test which components matter.

Compared withplacebo treatment; modeling treatment; no-treatment control

Measured withself-reported fear ratings

💡 Where this could help

If findings like these hold up in larger trials, the promise is simple: a low-cost, self-administered tool that could reach people struggling with phobias who can't easily access traditional care — at home, between appointments, or where there aren't enough clinicians to go around.

🔬 What to study next

The natural next step: longer-term follow-up to see how durable the benefit is, and an active ('sham tapping') control to isolate what's doing the work.

The full record

Design	Dismantling study
Participants	119 people
Population	university students
Comparison group	placebo treatment; modeling treatment; no-treatment control
Outcome measures	self-reported fear ratings
Journal	The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
Year	2003
Country	United States
Language	English
Method	EFT / tapping
Publication type	Study / trial
Verification	✓ Confirmed against the primary source

Read the original study →

Cite this study

APA

Waite, L. W., & Holder, M. D. (2003). Assessment of the Emotional Freedom Technique: An alternative treatment for fear. The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice.

This record is part of the Tapping Evidence Base — an openly-sourced, fully-referenced directory of the research on EFT/tapping. Explore more studies on Phobias · How It Works (Biology)