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CHAPTER 1 22 behavior that minimized the volume of the loud noise (i.e., minimized, but did not preclude the occurrence of threat). Next, during an extinction phase, one of the CS+ was no longer followed by the loud noise. Participants could use safety behavior that prevented the loud noise, safety behavior that minimized the volume of the loud noise, or no safety behavior during these unreinforced CS presentations. To assess whether these manipulations resulted in extinction learning, threat expectancy for the CS was subsequently measured without the availability of safety behavior. Additionally, in chapter 3 , we investigated whether using cleaning safety behavior during exposure to a contaminant prevents the disconfirmation of threat beliefs related to feelings of contamination, fear, danger, and disgust. Healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: repeated exposure to a contaminant whilst abstaining from safety behavior, with the use of disinfectant wipes after each instance of exposure, or no exposure or safety behavior. Participants rated their threat belief associated with the contaminant before and after the experimental manipulation. In chapter 4 , we investigated the causal influence of safety behavior on anxiety by examining whether checking safety behavior exacerbates OCD-related threat beliefs. Building on the studies by Deacon and Maack (2008), Olatunji et al. (2011), and Engelhard et al. (2015), we measured the effect of engaging in real-life OCD-like checking behavior for one week on obsession-related cognitions about the importance of checking and the overestimation of threat in healthy participants. Furthermore, chapter 5 concerns a fear conditioning experiment that tested the effect of safety behavior on the return of fear. Similar to the experiments described in chapter 2, participants learned that two neutral stimuli (CS+) were followed by an aversive loud noise (US), and one stimulus (CS-) was not. They also learned to use safety behavior that prevented the loud noise. Then, after successful extinction learning, safety behavior became available again during unreinforced CS trials. To assess if this caused a return of fear, we measured threat expectancy for the CS without the availability of safety behavior.