High Intolerance of Uncertainty Predicts Reduced Reinstatement of Threat Expectancy to Danger but not Safety Cues

Background. Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a transdiagnostic risk factor for an array of psychiatric disorders, and plays an important role in fear and threat learning. In concert, the ‘reinstatement of fear/threat’ is an understudied phenomenon thought to represent clinical symptom relapse, and occurs when unsignaled presentations of an aversive unconditional stimulus introduce uncertainty related to previously conditioned associations, leading to reinstatement of conditioned responding. The present study investigated IU as a predictor of reinstatement effects, such that individuals higher in IU would show larger reinstatement than those low in IU.Methods. Analyses were conducted on data from 62 participants who 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. Results. 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 (i.e., certainty of receiving a shock) ratings post-reinstatement.Conclusions. These findings provide support for the limited literature demonstrating an important role for IU in reinstatement effects and should be investigated further.