Cognitive reappraisal is associated with reduced threat expectancy during social fear extinction

The present study investigated whether cognitive reappraisal modulates conditioned responding during extinction in a socially relevant fear-conditioning paradigm and whether these effects vary as a function of 5-HTTLPR genotype and anxiety-related individual differences.

Ninety-three young adults participated in this study, consisting of three experimental phases: i) social aversive conditioning, ii) extinction, and iii) reinstatement. Cognitive reappraisal was implemented during extinction to test whether reinterpretation of socially threatening cues would reduce threat expectancy and negative evaluative responses. Participants were grouped according to serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) genotype. Evaluative ratings, anxiety ratings, US expectancy, and physiological responses were assessed.

S-allele carriers showed greater sensitivity to ambiguous social cues at baseline and during early acquisition, including more negative evaluations of neutral faces and higher threat expectancy toward safety cues. However, no reliable genotype-related differences in extinction were observed. Cognitive reappraisal was associated with lower US expectancy during extinction but did not significantly alter evaluative or anxiety ratings relative to the no-reappraisal condition. Reinstatement effects were observed following extinction.

These findings suggest that cognitive reappraisal may influence explicit threat expectancy during extinction without substantially modifying affective or evaluative components of conditioned fear. No evidence was found for genotype-specific benefits of reappraisal. Future studies with larger samples are needed to clarify potential genetic moderators of emotion regulation during fear learning.