Living in fear: Low-cost avoidance maintains low-level threat

Xia, Weike; Eyolfson, Eric; Lloyd, Kenneth E.; Vervliet, Bram; Dymond, Simon

doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2018.09.001

Cited by 13 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Participants were provided with verbal instructions to rate the intensity of each shock on a scale from 1 (‘not at all uncomfortable’) to 5 (‘very uncomfortable’). When a shock was rated as a 4, the participant received a second delivery of this intensity and, if considered ‘uncomfortable but not painful’ by the participant, this shock intensity was used for that participant for the duration of the task (Xia et al, 2019; Zuj et al, 2020). Participants then underwent the conditioning, extinction and reinstatement task described above, after which the participants were debriefed and compensated for their time.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intolerance of uncertainty predicts altered threat expectancy ratings during reinstatement

Zuj

Dymond

Murray

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a transdiagnostic risk factor for psychiatric disorders, and plays an important role in fear and threat learning under uncertainty. The ‘reinstatement of fear/threat’ is an understudied phenomenon thought to represent clinical symptom relapse. Reinstatement of conditioned responding can be captured in the laboratory by presenting unsignaled presentations of an aversive unconditional stimulus. The present study investigated IU as a predictor of reinstatement effects, such that individuals higher in IU, relative to lower IU, would show larger reinstatement. Sixty-two participants completed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale and provided threat expectancy ratings (i.e. certainty of receiving a shock) during a differential threat conditioning and extinction paradigm with reinstatement. Findings suggested a differential increase in threat expectancy ratings to both the threat and safety cue following reinstatement, although this effect was small and did not survive follow-up tests. Nevertheless, IU was a significant predictor of reinstatement to the threat cue but not the safety cue, although this effect was not in the expected direction. Specifically, higher IU was associated with reduced threat expectancy ratings post-reinstatement. These findings provide support for the limited literature demonstrating an important role for IU in reinstatement effects and should be investigated further.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The US occurred immediately following CS offset on relevant trials as used previously by the authors (e.g. Xia et al, 2019;Zuj et al, 2016Zuj et al, , 2020 with CS colour counterbalanced.…”

Section: Threat Conditioning and Extinction Paradigmmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intolerance of uncertainty predicts altered threat expectancy ratings during reinstatement

Zuj

Dymond

Murray

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

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“…This reveals the implicit assumption that decreasing Pavlovian fear responses will naturally lead to decreased avoidance and enhanced life functioning, and relapse of fear will invariably lead to clinical relapse. Avoidance may persist even after fear has been extinguished, and the availability of an avoidance response following fear extinction has been shown to increase levels of fear (Vervliet & Indekeu, 2015;Vervliet, Lange, & Milad, 2017;Xia, Eyolfson, Lloyd, Vervliet, & Dymond, 2019). Decreases in Pavlovian fear responses do not consistently lead to decreases in avoidance (Treanor & Barry, 2017) or to more engagement in important areas of life (Gloster et al, 2017).…”

Section: Translational Research In Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Decreases in Pavlovian fear responses do not consistently lead to decreases in avoidance (Treanor & Barry, 2017) or to more engagement in important areas of life (Gloster et al, 2017). Avoidance may persist even after fear has been extinguished, and the availability of an avoidance response following fear extinction has been shown to increase levels of fear (Vervliet & Indekeu, 2015;Vervliet, Lange, & Milad, 2017;Xia, Eyolfson, Lloyd, Vervliet, & Dymond, 2019).…”

Section: Translational Research In Anxiety Disordersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relapse of anxiety‐related fear and avoidance: Conceptual analysis of treatment with acceptance and commitment therapy

Smith

Dymond

2019

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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Excessive fear and avoidance in relatively safe situations can lead to a narrowing of one's behavioral repertoire and less engagement with valued aspects of living. Ultimately, these processes can reach clinical levels, as seen in anxiety, trauma, and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Research on the basic behavioral processes underlying successful treatment with exposure therapy is growing, yet little is known about the mechanisms contributing to clinical relapse. Until recently, these mechanisms have largely been conceptualized in terms of Pavlovian return of fear, with relatively little research into operant processes. In the current paper, we briefly review translational research in anxiety disorders and the connections between fear and avoidance, focusing on recent work in the acquisition, extinction, and relapse of avoidance behavior and the generalization of this learning through arbitrary symbolic relations. We then introduce one possible treatment approach to mitigating clinical relapse, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and provide a conceptual analysis for why ACT may be especially well-situated to address this issue. Finally, we end with potential directions for future research on treatment and relapse of anxiety disorders.

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“…In other words, they make inferences along the lines of, 'If I avoid, there must be danger' [28][29][30]. Drawing invalid conclusions about the dangerousness of a situation can hinder the correction of false threat beliefs, escalate fears and promote the generalization of fears to safe situations [3,31,32]. Thus, the tendency to rely on behavioral information when judging the dangerousness of a situation could constitute a vulnerability factor for the development of anxiety-related disorders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Bad to Worse: Safety Behaviors Exacerbate Eating Disorder Fears

Spix

Melles

Jansen

2023

Behavioral Sciences

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When evaluating ambiguous situations, humans sometimes use their behavior as a source of information (behavior-as-information effect) and interpret safety behaviors as evidence for danger. Accordingly, we hypothesized that eating disorder safety behaviors (restrictive eating, body checking, etc.) might aggravate fear and anxiety in individuals with an eating disorder. The present study tested to what extent eating disorder safety behaviors increase threat perception in individuals with and without an eating disorder. For this, 108 individuals with a self-reported eating disorder diagnosis and 82 healthy controls rated the dangerousness of several short situations. The situations systematically varied in the presence of eating disorder safety behaviors and danger information. As expected, all participants perceived situations in which the protagonist executed an eating disorder safety behavior as more threatening than situations without a safety behavior. This ‘behavior-as-information’ effect was equally strong in individuals with and without an eating disorder. Additionally, safety behaviors strengthened threat perception more in safe situations than in dangerous situations. To conclude, the presence of eating disorder safety behavior can increase threat perception regardless of whether individuals have an eating disorder or not. This makes eating disorder safety behaviors a potential risk factor for the development and maintenance of eating disorder fears.

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Living in fear: Low-cost avoidance maintains low-level threat

Abstract: Low-cost avoidance maintains low-threat value of safety cues.

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Intolerance of uncertainty predicts altered threat expectancy ratings during reinstatement

Intolerance of uncertainty predicts altered threat expectancy ratings during reinstatement

Relapse of anxiety‐related fear and avoidance: Conceptual analysis of treatment with acceptance and commitment therapy

From Bad to Worse: Safety Behaviors Exacerbate Eating Disorder Fears

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