Intolerance of uncertainty and threat reversal: a conceptual replication of Morriss et al. (2019)

The ability to update responding to threat cues is an important adaptive ability. Recently, Morriss et al. (2019) demonstrated that participants scoring high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) were more capable of threat reversal. The current report aimed to conceptually replicate these results of Morriss et al. (2019) in an independent sample using a comparable paradigm (n = 102). Following a threat conditioning phase, participants were told that cues associated with threat and safety from electric shock would reverse. Responding was measured with skin conductance and fear potentiated startle. We failed to conceptually replicate the results of Morriss et al. (2019). Instead, we found that, for participants who received precise contingency instructions prior to acquisition, lower IUS (controlling for STAI-T) relative to higher IUS was associated with greater threat reversal, indexed via skin conductance responses. These results suggest that IU and contingency instructions differentially modulate the course of threat reversal.