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CHAPTER 3 68 exposure with preventive SB. Goetz & Lee (2015) reasoned that using restorative SB after exposure can decrease fear of contamination, because it enables patients to learn about their ability to tolerate distress during exposure and to cope with feelings of contamination. However, they defined SB based on its function in relation to emotional distress (cf. Helbig-Lang & Petermann, 2010), which may not be synonymous with SB aimed at preventing feared outcomes. Restorative SB can still be expected to prevent the disconfirmation of threat beliefs about future catastrophes. Whether cleaning SB prevents the disconfirmation of threat beliefs associated with touching a contaminant is an empirical question that can be assessed directly. We therefore aimed to extend the findings by Rachman et al. (2011) and van den Hout et al. (2011) by incorporating a direct examination of the effect of SB on threat beliefs associated with feelings of contamination, fear of contamination, danger and disgust (CFDD). We expected that the results for feelings of CFDD would be replicated, that is, that the E+RP and E+SB condition would show a pre- to post-test decrease in CFDD ratings, compared to a no-exposure control condition (cf. van den Hout et al., 2011). Furthermore, in line with cognitive theory, we hypothesized that participants in the E+RP condition would show a larger pre- to post-test decrease in the degree to which they believed a threat belief related to the contaminant than participants in the E+SB condition and participants in a no-exposure control condition. Additionally, we explored the time course of effects on CFDD in the E+RP and E+SB condition, and effects of the interventions on perceived control (cf. van den Hout et al, 2011, 2012).