The impact of losing control over threat on the acquisition, extinction, and renewal of conditioned fear

Uncontrollable situations are often experienced as more challenging than those within our control. Recently, it has been proposed that threat (un)controllability also affects fear learning processes. Most studies compare two variants of threat control – lacking versus having control. However, the impact of a sudden loss of control remains understudied. The current study investigated the impact of loss of control over threat on conditioned fear. We randomly assigned 80 participants to a Continuous Control (CC) or a Loss of Control (LC) group and administered a threat (un)controllability task integrated into a fear conditioning procedure. Participants were presented with two pictures, one consistently paired with an electrical stimulus (US). Participants from the CC group could learn to terminate the US with a mouse click. Participants in the LC group could terminate the stimulus initially but then lost this possibility. During the extinction and renewal phases, the pictures were repeatedly presented without the US. A new background context was introduced in the renewal phase. US-expectancy ratings, skin-conductance responses, fear ratings, and control predictions were collected throughout the procedure. The LC group displayed higher cue-elicited fear and lower expected control than the CC group in acquisition. Loss of control during acquisition had little effects on extinction and renewal of conditioned fear responses, apart from a remarkable and sustained reduction in expected control throughout extinction in the LC group. These findings suggest that losing control over threat may have limited acute effects on fear learning but lingering effects on people's anticipated control over future situations.