A partner's smile is not per se a safety signal: Psychophysiological response patterns to instructed threat and safety

Abstract

Recent studies on fear conditioning and pain perception suggest that pictures of loved ones (e.g., a romantic partner) may serve as a prepared safety cue that is less likely to signal aversive events. Challenging this view, we examined whether pictures of smiling or angry loved ones are better safety or threat cues. To this end, 47 healthy participants were verbally instructed that specific facial expressions (e.g., happy faces) cue threat of electric shocks and others cue safety (e.g., angry faces).When facial images served as threat cues, they elicited distinct psychophysiological defensive responses (e.g., increased threat ratings, startle reflex, and skin conductance responses) compared to viewing safety cues. Interestingly, instructed threat effects occurred regardless of the person who cued shock threat (partner vs. unknown) and their facial expression (happy vs. angry). Taken together, these results demonstrate the flexible nature of facial information (i.e., facial expression and facial identity) to be easily learned as signals for threat or safety, even when showing loved ones.

Social support and fear-inhibition: an examination of underlying neural mechanisms

“…It is notable that these effects do not appear to occur following instructed fear acquisition (where no aversive outcome, such as shock, is ever experienced: Morato et al. , 2021 , 2023 ; Bublatzky et al. , 2022 ), suggesting that the inhibitory effects of social support may not rely on altering expectation that an aversive event will occur, as other fear inhibitors do ( Rescorla and Wagner, 1972 ), but instead rely on altering how aversive the event is perceived to be, as has been argued recently ( Hornstein et al.…”

Pavlovian safety learning: an integrative theoretical review

“…J. McNally & Reiss, 1982, 1984Mineka & Öhman, 2002;Öhman et al, 1975; M. E. P. Seligman, 1971). 'Prepared safety signals' have been examined in several studies, wherein stimuli featuring social support figures or loved ones can exert threat inhibition indicative of conditioned inhibition (Bublatzky et al, 2019;Eisenberger et al, 2011;Hornstein et al, 2016Hornstein et al, , 2021Leschak et al, 2021;Morato et al, 2021Morato et al, , 2023. While untrained safety signals such as these can easily exert threat-counteracting effects, the concept of 'prepared' or innate frustration signal is difficult to conceive of conceptually or experimentally.…”