Safety behavior

A precaution intended to prevent a feared outcome or conceal anxiety. It can maintain fear when safety is attributed to the precaution, when it blocks informative experience, or when it produces misleading symptoms. Whether a behavior has this function depends on context; objectively useful precautions are not inherently pathological.

Use of a precaution in a way intended to support engagement while preserving useful learning. Its value cannot be settled from its label; prediction testing, attribution of safety, replacement precautions and longer-term transfer should be measured. An undergraduate contamination experiment showed why reduction in symptoms need not be logically impossible in the presence of a safety behavior.^[ref]

Seeking another person's confirmation of safety or certainty. In an anxiety-maintaining cycle, immediate relief can reinforce repeated requests without changing the underlying interpretation. This function should be distinguished from appropriate information seeking or clinical assessment.