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Safety behaviours preserve threat beliefs: Protection from extinction of human fear conditioning by an avoidance response
Abstract
A laboratory autonomic conditioning procedure was used to establish fear conditioning in human participants by pairing neutral stimuli with electric shock. Participants were also trained to make a button-press response to avoid shock. A target fear stimulus was then extinguished by presenting it without shock. The experimental group was given the opportunity to make the avoidance response during extinction whereas the control group was not. When the fear stimulus was tested without the response available, the control group showed normal extinction of both shock expectancy ratings and skin conductance responses, but the experimental group showed "protection from extinction": they continued to give high expectancy ratings and strong skin conductance responses. We interpret this effect as analogous to the role of within-situation safety behaviours in preserving threat beliefs during exposure therapy for anxiety disorders. The results support a cognitive account of learning and anxiety. The procedure provides a potential laboratory model for further examination of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying anxiety and its reduction.
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“Other experiments in humans, as well as clinical studies, have found that avoidance or safety behavior during extinction or exposure therapy can hinder the reduction of threat responses or fear (Lovibond et al., 2009; Blakey and Abramowitz, 2016; Volders et al., 2012).”
From Active avoidance: Neural mechanisms and attenuation of pavlovian conditioned responding (2017) · cites this paper as Lovibond et al., 2009
In the citing paper
“A small experimental literature on avoidance in humans and a large clinical literature have yielded conflicting findings regarding whether avoidance attenuates threat responses or patients' fear.”
From Active avoidance: Neural mechanisms and attenuation of pavlovian conditioned responding (2017) · cites this paper as Lovibond et al., 2009
Citations
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“Classical behavioural avoidance protocols frequently implemented a threat learning phase, followed by an avoidance task 10 .”
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Kesim, I. E., Pittig, A., & Wong, A. H. K. (2024) · Psychological Research · doi:10.1007/s00426-024-01979-0 · Cited by 3
“In laboratory settings, safety behaviors are modeled as US-avoid-ance responses (e.g., Flores et al., 2018; 2020; Levita et al., 2012; Lovibond et al., 2009; Pittig, 2019) which regards executing a designated response (e.g., pressing a specific key) during CS + presentation to effectively reduce…”
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Brahm, C. I., Heinig, I., Goerigk, S., Arolt, V., Bartnick, C., Dannlowski, U., Deckert, J., Domschke, K., Fydrich, T., Hamm, A., et al. (2026) · Cognitive Behaviour Therapy · doi:10.1080/16506073.2026.2649627 · Cited by 1
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Meijer, S. W., Bramson, B., Toni, I., & Roelofs, K. (2026) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0769-25.2026 · Cited by 10
“Persistent avoidance of perceived threats contributes to the development and maintenance of anxiety by preventing extinction throughexpo-sure (Lovibond et al., 2009; Pittig et al., 2015; Craske and Stein, 2016; Rattel et al., 2017).”
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Balea, P., Alaminos, D., López, F. J., & Cobos, P. L. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.104982 · Cited by 1
Meckes, S. J., Cole, A., Gee, K., & Lancaster, C. L. (2025) · Cognitive Therapy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10608-025-10667-1 · Cited by 1
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Carpentier, N., Scheveneels, S., & Hermans, D. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087241278134 · Cited by 1
“Approaching a stimulus can potentially increase opportunities to violate expectancies, as it is incompatible with avoidance and safety behaviors (i.e., protection from extinction; Lovibond et al., 2009).”
Linking maladaptive food avoidance and anorexia nervosa symptoms: An analogue study
Spix, M., & Jansen, A. (2024) · Journal of Experimental Psychopathology · doi:10.1177/20438087241271637 · Cited by 1
“…of anorexia nervosa symptoms: engaging in eating disorder-related avoidance behaviors in the absence of danger can aggravate threat beliefs (Spix, Melles, et al., 2023) and might hinder individuals to test these incorrect assumptions (Lovibond et al., 2009; Spix, Schutzeichel, et al., 2023).”
Ventral hippocampus mediates inter-trial responding in signaled active avoidance
Oleksiak, C. R., Plas, S. L., Carriaga, D., Vasudevan, K., Maren, S., & Moscarello, J. M. (2024) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115071 · Cited by 1
Ventral hippocampus mediates inter-trial responding in signaled active avoidance
Oleksiak, C. R., Plas, S. L., Carriaga, D., Vasudevan, K., Maren, S., & Moscarello, J. M. (2024) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2024.03.18.585627 · Cited by 1
Lemmens, A., Aarts, E., & Dibbets, P. (2023) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2023.104442 · Cited by 1
Stallman, J. K., Williams, K. N. B., Goodson, J., & Haeffel, G. (2023) · Social & Personality Psychology Compass · doi:10.1111/spc3.12904 · Cited by 1
Glück, V. M., Boschet, J. M., Pittig, R., & Pittig, A. (2023) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2023.104417 · Cited by 3
Prudon, P. (2021) · Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2021.100639 · Cited by 1
Take no risk!—Persistent avoidance after interoceptive fear conditioning
Leissner, S. R., Benke, C., & Melzig, C. A. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105186
Time cost reduces the generalization of fearful avoidance
Fan, M., Huang, Z., Gao, Y., Meng, L., Wu, J., Xie, Q., & Zheng, X. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105165
A systematic review of human avoidance learning: Cognition, computation, and methods.
Mancinelli, F., & Bach, D. R. (2026) · Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106916
The Neural Basis of Avoidance Learning and Its Relation to Safety Processing
Claes, L., Laing, P., Steward, T., Felmingham, K. L., Vervliet, B., Davey, C., Moffat, B. A., Glarin, R., & Harrison, B. J. (2026) · eNeuro · doi:10.1523/eneuro.0170-26.2026
“…when avoidance responses are available during fear extinction, they can impair extinction success ( “ the protection from extinction effect ” ; Lovibond et al., 2009) and avoidance responses show robust renewal after extinction when the avoidance option is reintroduced (Vervliet and…”
From Harm to Help: Transforming Anxiety Management in Schools
Buzanko, C. (2026) · Journal of Applied School Psychology · doi:10.1080/15377903.2026.2701659
“Accommodation extends this dynamic into the social environment, with adults reinforced for arranging the avoidance that blocks students’ corrective learning and narrows their behavioral repertoire, reducing the likelihood that they will develop coping skills (Lovibond et al., 2009).”
Traxler, J., Vandael, K., Hulle, N. V., Gatzounis, R., Glogan, E., & Meulders, A. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105120
Liu, C., Wang, M., Liu, J., Zhao, Y., & Yu, F. (2026) · BMC Psychology · doi:10.1186/s40359-026-04908-5
“Avoidance behaviors (e.g., IGD symptoms) prevent anxious and depressive individuals from being exposed to uncertain situations [3, 31], thereby providing temporary peace, which in turn leads to IGD symptoms.”
Sridhar, S., Biagi, N., & Wake, S. (2026) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/j.brat.2026.105088
The road not taken: selective sampling and persisting inaccurate impressions
Vanlooy, E., Harris, C., van de Vijver, I., & Custers, R. (2026) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1007/s11031-026-10205-w
“Whereas this interaction allows you to learn more about them, it limits your opportunity sustaining inaccurate impressions, independent of potential rewards (Lovibond et al., 2009; Pittig et al., 2018; Treanor & Barry, 2017; Van Uijen et al., 2018; Vervliet et al., 2017).”
Carpentier, N., Hermans, D., Leng, L., Luyten, L., & Scheveneels, S. (2026) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2026.103135
Li, T., Shen, Y., Wang, L., Lei, J., & Fan, J. (2026) · Research on Social Work Practice · doi:10.1177/10497315251410192
Images of social support reminders, but not learned safety signals, reduce long-term fear
Hornstein, E., Fanselow, M. S., Craske, M., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-27689-0
“While safety behaviors (such as seeking out safety cues) have long been considered harmful to fear extinction and treatment procedures 31,32 , safety behavior involving loved ones has never been empirically assessed, but only assumed to interfere.”
An Implementation Intention Combining Reappraisal and Anger Counteraction Reduces Fear ReinstatementPreprint
Wang, H., Zeng, Y., & Zeng, S. (2025) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2025.09.26.678788
“Avoidance, a defining feature of these disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), reduces contact with the CS, impairs safety learning, and contributes to extinction resistance and relapse (Lovibond et al., 2009; O’Malley & Waters, 2018; Rattel et al., 2017; Vervliet & Indekeu, 2015).”
Crombie, K. M., Sato, M., Chatham, S. A., Leri, J., Richardson, M. T., & Cisler, J. M. (2025) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103075
Costly pain avoidance and its impact on the modulation and extinction of visceral pain-related fear
Labrenz, F., Kalenbach, A., Elsenbruch, S., & Icenhour, A. (2025) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-10499-9 · Cited by 1
“…during which no visceral pain stimulus was applied and no decisions were available, participants overestimated cue and pain contingencies, and negative valence and fear of the pain-predictive cue remained elevated, in line with the assumption that safety behaviors preserve threat beliefs 57 .”
Labrenz, F., Kalenbach, A., Elsenbruch, S., & Icenhour, A. (2025) · bioRxiv · doi:10.1101/2025.06.25.661529
“…during which no visceral pain stimulus was applied and no decisions were available, participants overestimated cue and pain contingencies, and negative valence and fear of the pain-predictive cue remained elevated, in line with the assumption that safety behaviors preserve threat beliefs 59 .”
The generalization of threat beliefs to novel safety stimuli induced by safety behaviors.
Wong, A. H. K., Pittig, A., & Engelhard, I. M. (2024) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115078
“…of such safety behaviors, including the persistence of safety behaviors without realistic threat (e.g., [10,12,34,38,52]), how persistent safety behaviors protect one from correcting maladaptive beliefs [28,35,39], and that safety behaviors after fear extinction can lead to a return of fear [51].”
BackgroundAkodu, A., Akanni, B. F., Osuntoki, A., & Zibiri, R. (2023) · Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology · doi:10.61186/johe.12.4.242
Bullock, T. E., & Gunaydin, L. A. (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2023.09.15.558002
“(Lovibond et al., 2009; Salkovskis et al., 1999).”
Effects of safety behaviors on distress tolerance : an experimental investigation
Siegel, E. (2019) · doi:10.26153/tsw/5662
“access to the preventative safety behavior showed significantly less extinction to the third stimulus (Lovibond et al., 2009).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Lovibond, P. F., Mitchell, C. J., Minard, E., Brady, A., & Menzies, R. G.
- Affiliations
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Lovibond, Peter F.
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-08
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 716-720
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2086885179
- Cited by
- 275
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 3.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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
- safety behavior, threat beliefs, fear conditioning, extinction, avoidance response, skin conductance response, exposure therapy, anxiety disorders, autonomic conditioning
- MeSH terms
- Avoidance Learning, Conditioning, Classical, Culture, Electric Stimulation, Extinction, Psychological, Fear, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Humans, Male, Safety
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