A Safe Haven: Investigating Social-Support Figures as Prepared Safety Stimuli

Although fear-conditioning research has demonstrated that certain survival-threatening stimuli, namely prepared fear stimuli, are readily associated with fearful events, little research has explored whether a parallel category exists for safety stimuli. We examined whether social-support figures, who have typically benefited survival, can serve as prepared safety stimuli, a category that has not been explored previously. Across three experiments, we uncovered three key findings. First, social-support figures were less readily associated with fear than were strangers or neutral stimuli (in a retardation-of-acquisition test). Second, social-support stimuli inhibited conditional fear responses to other cues (in a summation test), and this inhibition continued even after the support stimulus was removed. Finally, these effects were not simply due to familiarity or reward because both familiar and rewarding stimuli were readily associated with fear, whereas social-support stimuli were not. These findings suggest that social-support figures are one category of prepared safety stimuli that may have long-lasting effects on fear-learning processes.