COVARIATION BIAS AND THE RETURN OF FEAR

Several studies have indicated that phobic fear is accompanied by a co variation bias, i.e. that phobic Ss tend to overassociate fear relevan t stimuli and aversive outcomes. Such a covariation bias seems to be a fairly direct and powerful way to confirm danger expectations and enh ance fear. Therefore, it has been suggested that covariation bias is a n important factor in the maintenance of phobic fear. However, thus fa r there are no empirical data available to exclude the alternative pos sibility that covariation bias is a mere epiphenomenon of fear. To exp lore the ''causal'' status of covariation bias, successfully treated s pider phobics who participated in an earlier study on covariation bias were asked to complete a Spider Phobia Questionnaire at 2 yr follow u p. Results indicate that Ss who displayed a covariation bias immediate ly after treatment are more vulnerable to relapse than Ss who did not show such a bias. This finding strengthens the idea that covariation b ias may enhance fear, thereby contradicting the suggestion that covari ation bias is a mere epiphenomenon of phobic fear.