A Safe Haven

Abstract

Although fear-conditioning research has demonstrated that certain survival-threatening stimuli, namely prepared fear stimuli, are readily associated with fearful events, little research has explored whether a parallel category exists for safety stimuli. We examined whether social-support figures, who have typically benefited survival, can serve as prepared safety stimuli, a category that has not been explored previously. Across three experiments, we uncovered three key findings. First, social-support figures were less readily associated with fear than were strangers or neutral stimuli (in a retardation-of-acquisition test). Second, social-support stimuli inhibited conditional fear responses to other cues (in a summation test), and this inhibition continued even after the support stimulus was removed. Finally, these effects were not simply due to familiarity or reward because both familiar and rewarding stimuli were readily associated with fear, whereas social-support stimuli were not. These findings suggest that social-support figures are one category of prepared safety stimuli that may have long-lasting effects on fear-learning processes.

Unpacking the buffering effect of social support figures: Social support attenuates fear acquisition

“…By inhibiting the formation of fear associations for other cues, our close relationships may allow us to navigate the world with fewer learned fears, thus decreasing the activation of the threat response. Together with previous findings showing that social-support figures fulfill the requirements of prepared safety stimuli [25], these results suggest that social support may be helpful in preventing the formation of unnecessary or maladaptive fear associations and reducing threat related stress.…”

“…Second, finding that the presence of stranger images augmented fear acquisition would imply that the fear conditioning procedure used here was not strong enough to produce fear acquisition except in the presence of strangers. Yet, similar fear conditioning procedures have been used in other studies by this team [25] and others [27–29], in which expected patterns of fear learning were produced, indicating that fear learning should occur under the current procedures. Finally, to the extent that the stranger faces were interpreted as threatening (though unlikely because all stranger stimuli were smiling faces which have been shown to be perceived as warm and approachable [30] and to yield reward-related neural activity [31]), this should actually lead to reduced fear acquisition to a separate conditional fear stimulus.…”

“…It is possible that other characteristics of close others, such as being familiar or rewarding, could explain these effects. This is unlikely, however, given previous findings showing that while fear can be acquired for familiar or rewarding stimuli, it cannot be acquired for social-support stimuli [25]; nonetheless, future research is required to definitively rule out this possibility. Future work is also required to identify the boundaries of social support as a buffer against fear learning, such as investigating whether this effect is found when the conditional stimuli used are fear-relevant (e.g., prepared fear stimuli), or whether this effect is found in participants who are more prone to developing fears (e.g., anxious individuals).…”

“…However there are at least three reasons why this possibility seems unlikely. First, previous work using similar methods has demonstrated no difference in the safety or threat signaling function of images of strangers compared to images of neutral objects [25], indicating that stranger images would not be expected to have any impact on fear learning processes beyond that of neutral stimuli. Second, finding that the presence of stranger images augmented fear acquisition would imply that the fear conditioning procedure used here was not strong enough to produce fear acquisition except in the presence of strangers.…”

“…Indeed, recent research has shown that social-support figures are one category of prepared safety stimuli, less easily becoming associated with threat and reducing conditional fear responses, and that the presence of social-support figure reminders potentially leads to longer lasting fear extinction [25]. Thus, by signaling safety and interfering with normal fear learning processes, social support may reduce threat-related stress and increase positive health outcomes.…”