The Effects of Safety Behavior Directed Towards a Safety Cue on Perceptions of Threat

Acquisition and extinction of operant pain-related avoidance behavior using a 3 degrees-of-freedom robotic arm

“…29 It has even been suggested that avoidance or safety behavior might not only be involved in fear exacerbation and maintenance but also in the development of fears. 9 Alternatively, the present data might simply point out that participants were applying a "better safe than sorry" logic, because the trade-off equation between increased effort and the possibility of receiving pain turned out in favor of pain-related avoidance behavior.…”

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

“…Additional security at airports and train stations, visible police and army street patrols, combined with regular news reports about escalating national security threat levels, may actually serve as a reminder of threat (Renard, 2016;van de Veer, de Lange, van der Haar, & Karremans, 2012). In this way, a paradoxical outcome of safety behavior is enhanced threat perception in the presence of objective safety which can serve to strengthen excessive avoidance (Engelhard, van Uijen, Seters & Velu, 2015).…”

“…Avoidance maintains perceived threat levels of a CS+ (Lovibond et al, 2009;Krypotos et al, 2015) and leads to a return of previously extinguished threat value (van Uijen, Leer & Engelhard, 2017;Vervliet & Indekeu, 2015). Avoidance may also increase the perceived threat level of low-threat safety cues (Engelhard, van Uijen, Seters & Velu, 2015). Engelhard et al (2015) investigated whether shock expectancy for a low-threat value cue increased when the opportunity to avoid was removed.…”

Preventative and restorative safety behaviors: Effects on exposure treatment outcomes and risk for future anxious symptoms

“…Over the past 25 years, a growing body of research has demonstrated that safety behaviors can influence the development, (Deacon & Maack, ; Dunmore et al.,; Goodson, Haeffel, Raush, & Hershenberg, ; Radomsky, Gilchrist, & Dussault, ), maintenance (Beesdo‐Baum et al., ; McManus, Sacadura, & Clark, ; Olatunji, Etzel, Tomarken, Ciesielski, & Deacon, ), and treatment of anxiety (e.g., panic disorder, Helbig‐Lang et al., ; generalized anxiety disorder, Beesdo‐Baum et al., ; social anxiety, Wells et al., ; contamination fears, Rachman, Shafran, Radomsky, & Zysk, ; and specific phobias, Powers, Smits, & Telch, ). Safety behaviors have been found to increase threat expectations (Engelhard, van Uijen, van Seters, & Velu, ), prevent extinction (Lovibond, Mitchell, Minard, Brady, & Menzies, ), increase contamination concerns and estimations of threat (Deacon & Maack, ), maintain catastrophic beliefs about anxiety (Salkovskis, Clark, Hackmann, Wells, & Gelder, ), and decrease perceptions of control (Milosevic & Radomsky, ). In light of these findings, safety behaviors have become a target in exposure therapy treatments for anxiety disorders (Helbig‐Lang & Petermann, ).…”