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The general effectiveness of psychotherapy and psychological intervention has been explained in part through cognitive dissonance theory.
Some social psychologists have argued that the act of freely choosing a specific therapy, together with the effort and money invested by the client in order to continue to engage in the chosen therapy, positively influences the effectiveness of therapy.
This phenomenon was demonstrated in a study with overweight children, in which causing the children to believe that they freely chose the type of therapy they received resulted in greater weight loss.
In another example, individuals with ophidiophobia ( fear of snakes ) who invested significant effort to engage in activities without therapeutic value for their condition, but which had been framed as legitimate and relevant therapy, showed significant improvement in phobic symptoms.
In these cases and perhaps in many real-world treatments, patients came to feel better in order to justify their efforts and to ratify their choices.
Beyond these observed short-term effects, effort expenditure in therapy also predicts long-term therapeutic change.

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