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CHAPTER 3 66 did not find evidence in favor of either the incorporation or removal of SB during exposure (Meulders, Van Daele, Volders, & Vlaeyen, 2016). How can the beneficial effects of E+SB be explained? From a cognitive perspective, it seems unlikely that participants’ fears would decrease if their threat beliefs remained unchanged. Closer inspection of the operationalization of SB in these studies suggests that the behavior may not have prevented disconfirmation of threat beliefs. For example, in the studies by Milosevic and Radomsky (2008, 2013), participants in the E+SB condition could wear protective gear, such as gloves and goggles, during exposure to a harmless snake (2008) or spider (2013). This would not have prevented the corrective learning experience of, for example, not getting attacked by the snake. Additionally, Milosevic and Radomsky (2013) directly assessed threat beliefs which indeed decreased not only in the E+RP condition, but also during E+SB. It thus appears that if SB does not preclude learning about the non- occurrence of the feared catastrophe, it does not impede the effects of exposure. Notable exceptions to this explanation seem to be studies on feelings of contamination (Rachman et al., 2011; van den Hout et al., 2011, 2012). During two sessions, separated by a two-week interval, healthy participants repeatedly touched a contaminated stimulus, either while abstaining from any form of SB (E+RP) or with the use of disinfectant wipes after each instance of exposure (E+SB). At the post-test after each session, none of the participants could clean themselves. E+SB and E+RP produced comparable, large, and stable reductions in feelings of contamination, fear of contamination, danger and disgust (CFDD). However, cleaning oneself with a wipe after exposure to a contaminant should logically prevent disconfirmatory learning experiences about the feared consequences of contamination. Participants should misattribute the non-occurrence of contamination and subsequent infection or illness to the use of SB: “Nothing bad happened, because I cleaned myself”. Several explanations for the positive effect of using wipes after exposure to a contaminant have been provided. First, van den Hout et al. (2012) hypothesized that SB did not prevent a reduction of contamination fear through the commitment to