Scientists at the University of Cambridge have found that paying people to like something can help them overcome their phobias.

The study found that if you give people small financial rewards when they encounter something they don’t like, they start to change how they feel about it over time. Eventually they no longer regard that thing as negative.

Dr Ben Seymour, who was one of the authors of the study, told BBC 5 live's Adrian Chiles that the key behind the experiment was to make something fearful feel pleasurable.

"If you do this over and over again, you gradually chip away at that unpleasantness.”