Beliefs about losing control, obsessions, and caution: An experimental investigation

Fear of acting on unwanted impulses (e.g., stabbing a loved one) and avoidance of threatening stimuli (e.g., knives) are common phenomena in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Cognitive models of OCD suggest that maladaptive beliefs underlie the development and maintenance of symptoms. The goal of this experiment was to determine whether beliefs about losing control over one's behaviour lead to experiencing anxiety and intrusive thoughts while approaching stimuli that are commonly feared in OCD, and to behaving more cautiously while interacting with the stimuli. Undergraduate participants (N = 128) were provided with false feedback about the meaning of their intrusive thoughts: "having intrusive thoughts means that you are likely to lose control over your behaviour" versus "intrusive thoughts are normal". Participants were then asked to approach sharp knives in a stepwise manner (i.e., behavioural approach test; BAT). Afterwards, they sorted the stimuli in a knife block as quickly as possible. Participants with higher (versus lower) beliefs about losing control experienced significantly increasing anxiety throughout the BAT. They also remembered experiencing more intrusive thoughts throughout the protocol and perceived themselves as less cautious while sorting the knives. Interestingly, objective measures of intrusive thoughts and caution were not significantly different between conditions.