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Nothing is safe: Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with compromised fear extinction learning
Open accessAbstract
Extinction-resistant fear is considered to be a central feature of pathological anxiety. Here we sought to determine if individual differences in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU), a potential risk factor for anxiety disorders, underlies compromised fear extinction. We tested this hypothesis by recording electrodermal activity in 38 healthy participants during fear acquisition and extinction. We assessed the temporality of fear extinction, by examining early and late extinction learning. During early extinction, low IU was associated with larger skin conductance responses to learned threat vs. safety cues, whereas high IU was associated with skin conductance responding to both threat and safety cues, but no cue discrimination. During late extinction, low IU showed no difference in skin conductance between learned threat and safety cues, whilst high IU predicted continued fear expression to learned threat, indexed by larger skin conductance to threat vs. safety cues. These findings suggest a critical role of uncertainty-based mechanisms in the maintenance of learned fear.
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“Two recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with high intolerance of uncertainty do not discriminate between threat and safety cues during fear acquisition and have slower fear extinction than those with low intolerance of uncertainty (Morriss, Macdonald, & van Reekum, 2016; Morriss, Christakou, & van Reekum, 2016).”
From Enhancing Inhibitory Learning: The Utility of Variability in Exposure (2019) · cites this paper as Morriss, Christakou, & van Reekum, 2016
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“The majority of studies have found specificity of IU over other self-reported anxiety measures in predicting 1) differences in SCR to both learned threat and safety during early trials, 2) greater SCR to learned threat cues versus safety cues during late trials (36,37), or 3) greater SCR to learned threat cues across all trials (15,35).”
From I Doubt It Is Safe: A Meta-analysis of Self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty and Threat Extinction Training (2021) · cites this paper as [37]
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“Intolerance of uncertainty may affect fear learning and fear extinction.”
From Enhancing Inhibitory Learning: The Utility of Variability in Exposure (2019) · cites this paper as Morriss, Christakou, & van Reekum, 2016
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
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“Two recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with high intolerance of uncertainty do not discriminate between threat and safety cues during fear acquisition and have slower fear extinction than those with low intolerance of uncertainty (Morriss, Macdonald, & van Reekum, 2016; Morriss, Christakou, & van Reekum, 2016).”
From Enhancing Inhibitory Learning: The Utility of Variability in Exposure (2019) · cites this paper as Morriss, Christakou, & van Reekum, 2016
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“In previous research, a few studies observed differences in SCR to both learned threat and safety cues during the early trials of threat extinction training (36,37).”
From I Doubt It Is Safe: A Meta-analysis of Self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty and Threat Extinction Training (2021) · cites this paper as [37]
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“Notably, the original studies that found a relationship between IU and early extinction used a 100% reinforcement rate during acquisition (36,37), where the change in contingencies between acquisition and extinction are more obvious.”
From I Doubt It Is Safe: A Meta-analysis of Self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty and Threat Extinction Training (2021) · cites this paper as [37]
In the citing paper
“We have previously shown the same experimental design to successfully evoke concomitant threat extinction psychophysiology and brain activation in adult populations41,44, similar to other labs using 100% reinforcement45.”
From Multimodal evidence for delayed threat extinction learning in adolescence and young adulthood (2019) · cites this paper as [44]
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“The conditioning task was identical to those used in previous studies41,42,44.”
From Multimodal evidence for delayed threat extinction learning in adolescence and young adulthood (2019) · cites this paper as [44]
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Citations
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“The conditioned response score was the first 2CS+ trials − the first 2CS − trials, similar to previous work assessing conditioned responses in extinction (Dunsmoor et al., In press; Milad et al., 2009; Phelps et al., 2004 .”
Fear Extinction as a Model for Translational Neuroscience: Ten Years of Progress
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“The conditioned response score was the first 2CS+ trials − the first 2CS − trials, similar to previous work assessing conditioned responses in extinction (Dunsmoor et al., In press; Milad et al., 2009; Phelps et al., 2004 .”
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BackgroundNo Evidence for Decreased Generalization of Fear Extinction in High-Trait Anxious Individuals
Endhoven, B., Krypotos, A. M., Mertens, G., & Engelhard, I. M. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087241272700 · Cited by 1
“…by controlling for intolerance of uncertainty (i.e., the tendency to interpret uncertain situations as threatening; Hunt et al., 2022; Morriss et al., 2016) and worry (i.e., re fl ecting a more cognitive component of anxiety; Ryum et al., 2017), which are closely related to trait…”
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“However, high IU individuals typically show deficits in safety learning and display generalized fear responses to safety signals (Gorka et al. 2014; Morriss et al. 2016).”
Appel, H., Mattes, A., & Gerlach, A. L. (2026) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506073.2026.2618137 · Cited by 1
“This exaggerated need for safety signals is also in line with behavioral studies showing slower fear extinction (i.e. delayed safety learning) as a function of IU (Morriss et al., 2016).”
Intolerance of uncertainty predicts altered threat expectancy ratings during reinstatement
Zuj, D. V., Dymond, S., Murray, S. B., Thomas, S., & Morriss, J. (2022) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087221112330 · Cited by 1
“Firstly, it has been frequently identi fi ed that high IU participants show signi fi cantly less extinction than low IU participants (Morriss, 2019; Morriss et al., 2016), and it is therefore plausible that these fi ndings were driven by a reduced level of extinction, rather than reduced reinstatement…”
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“For fear acquisition, our findings align with the majority of studies that have not observed an effect of IU on fear learning (Johnson et al., 2023; Mertens & Morriss, 2021; Morriss, 2019; Morriss, Christakou, et al., 2016; Morriss et al., 2015, 2020; Morriss, Saldarini & Chapman, Fig.”
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“This type of analysis with IU has been previously published elsewhere (Morriss et al., 2015, 2016).”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Morriss, J., Christakou, A., & van Reekum, C. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Reading (GB)
- Venue
- Biological Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- Pt B
- Pages
- 187-193
- ISSN
- 0301-0511 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5154327
- OpenAlex
- W2378955611
- Cited by
- 152
- References
- 41
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 5.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Biological Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- CentAUR (University of Reading) (submittedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (MR/J003980/1)
- Natalia Kontoudaki & Karolina Tokarska for their help in collecting the data
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- intolerance of uncertainty, fear extinction, fear acquisition, anxiety disorders, skin conductance response, electrodermal activity, cue discrimination, individual differences
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Arousal, Autonomic Nervous System, Conditioning, Classical, Cues, Extinction, Psychological, Fear, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Risk Factors, Safety, Uncertainty, Young Adult
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