{"doi":"10.31234/osf.io/q6zfh","title":"A Meta-Analysis of Conditioned Fear Generalization in Anxiety-Related Disorders","abstract":"Objective: Generalization of conditioned fear is adaptive in some situations but maladaptive when fear excessively generalizes to innocuous stimuli with incidental resemblance to a genuine threat cue. Recently, empirical interest in fear generalization as a transdiagnostic explanatory mechanism underlying anxiety-related disorders has accelerated. As there are now several studies of fear generalization across multiple types of anxiety-related disorders, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies reporting behavioral measures (subjective ratings and psychophysiological indices) of fear generalization in anxiety-related disorder vs. comparison groups.Method: We conducted systematic searches of electronic databases (conducted from January-October 2020) for fear generalization studies involving anxiety-related disorder groups or subclinical analogue groups. A total of 300 records were full-text screened and two unpublished datasets were obtained, yielding 16 studies reporting behavioral fear generalization. Random-effects meta-analytic models and meta-regressions were applied to the behavioral data.Results: Fear generalization was significantly heightened in anxiety-related disorder participants (N=439) relative to comparison participants (N=428). We did not identify any significant clinical, sample, or methodological moderators. Conclusion: Heightened fear generalization is quantitatively supported as distinguishing anxiety-related disorder groups from comparison groups. Evidence suggests this effect is transdiagnostic, relatively robust to experimental or sample parameters, and that generalization paradigms are a well-supported framework for neurobehavioral investigations of learning and emotion in anxiety-related disorders. We discuss these findings in the context of prior meta-analyses and future directions and challenges for the field.","journal":"Open MIND","year":2022,"id":297655,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9511,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":986214,"name":"Evi-Anne van Dis","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":847614,"name":"Muriel A. Hagenaars","orcid":"0000-0002-5674-6966","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":847615,"name":"Angelos‐Miltiadis Krypotos","orcid":"0000-0001-9704-6520","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":21454,"name":"Charles B. Nemeroff","orcid":"0000-0001-7867-1160","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":847616,"name":"Shmuel Lissek","orcid":"0000-0001-7384-371X","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":847617,"name":"Iris M. Engelhard","orcid":"0009-0005-1117-932X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":410951,"name":"Joseph E. Dunsmoor","orcid":"0000-0002-5448-6873","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":646138,"name":"Samuel E. Cooper","orcid":"0000-0001-9563-1750","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":67,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:31:26.161109Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}