Previous research has documented that fearful individuals avoid fear-relevant cues even if they incur costs in doing so. Paradigms that were previously used to study avoidance in the lab, manipulated reward contingencies in favor of selecting either fear-relevant or neutral cues, e.g., spiders versus butterflies. We, thus, developed a paradigm where the chance of monetary gains was linked with increasing probability of a fear-relevant or a neutral outcome. To this end, we modified the well-established Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) to include fear-relevant outcomes.

Individuals with and without fear of spiders (N = 35) were offered the chance to inflate balloons, with more pumps resulting in larger gains. However, if the balloon exploded, this resulted in a loss of money – and at the same time in the presentation of a picture, either a fear-relevant spider or a neutral butterfly (emotional Balloon Analogue Risk Task; eBART). We operationalized risk aversion as the number of pumps and dysfunctionality of decision strategy as the amount of money that participants earned. In addition, decisional conflict was measured by response times for each decision.

The data indicate, that spider-fearful individuals were generally more risk-averse and much more so in trials with fear-relevant stimuli as part of the negative outcome. Overall, this resulted in smaller amount of money that spider-fearful individuals earned compared to spider non-fearful individuals. Interestingly, spider-fearful compared to spider non-fearful individuals generally responded more hesitantly on all trials, and more so when they feared to encounter a spider.

This research introduces a new paradigm and provides ecologically valid evidence for costly avoidance behavior in spider-fearful individuals. The eBART may be a promising new research tool to examine risk avoidance with emotionally relevant stimuli.

先前的研究已经证明，即使恐惧者会为此付出代价，他们也会避免与恐惧有关的线索。以前在实验室中研究回避行为的范例操纵了奖励意外事件，而选择了恐惧相关或中立的线索，例如蜘蛛还是蝴蝶。因此，我们建立了一个范式，其中货币收益的机会与恐惧相关或中立结果的可能性增加相关。为此，我们修改了完善的气球模拟风险任务（BART），以纳入与恐惧相关的结果。

那些不惧怕蜘蛛的人（N  = 35）有机会给气球充气，更多的水泵可以带来更大的收益。但是，如果气球爆炸，则会造成金钱损失，同时，在图片展示中，要么是恐惧相关的蜘蛛，要么是中立的蝴蝶（情感气球模拟风险任务；eBART）。我们将风险规避化为泵的数量，将决策策略的功能失调化为参与者赚到的钱。此外，决策冲突是通过每个决策的响应时间来衡量的。

数据表明，恐惧蜘蛛个体通常更倾向于规避风险，而在与恐惧有关的刺激作为阴性结果的试验中则更是如此。总体而言，与不恐惧蜘蛛的人相比，这导致了恐惧蜘蛛的人所赚的钱更少。有趣的是，与不恐惧蜘蛛的个体相比，对蜘蛛恐惧的个体在所有试验中的反应通常更为犹豫，而在害怕遇到蜘蛛的情况下则更为犹豫。

这项研究引入了新的范例，并为恐惧蜘蛛的个体提供了成本高昂的回避行为的生态有效证据。该eBART可能是一个有前途的新的研究工具，用来检查风险规避情绪与相关的刺激。