A clash of values: Fear-relevant stimuli can enhance or corrupt adaptive behavior through competition between Pavlovian and instrumental valuation systems

Humans and nonhuman primates preferentially learn to fear and avoid archetypical fear-relevant stimuli. Yet how these learning biases influence adaptive behavior, the basic mechanistic underpinnings of these biases, and how they interact with learning experiences during the life span of an individual remain unknown. To study this, we investigated how 4 classes of fear-relevant stimuli (snakes, threatening in-group faces, racial out-group faces, and guns) influenced adaptive behavior. We showed that stimulus-driven biases have a dramatic influence that can either promote or corrupt adaptive behavior depending on how a bias relates to the environment. We quantified and compared the effects of different fear-relevant stimuli on instrumental behavior using a computational reinforcement learning model that formalized the idea that the bias reflects competition between an instrumental and a Pavlovian valuation system. These results were further clarified by 2 independent rating studies showing that perceived danger of the stimuli corresponded well with their influence on adaptive behavior.