Exposure plus response prevention versus exposure plus safety behaviours in reducing feelings of contamination, fear, danger and disgust. An extended replication of Rachman, Shafran, Radomsky & Zysk (2011)

► Safety behaviors like cleaning are held to impede positive effects of exposure to contaminants. ► An analogue experiment (Rachman et al., 2011) suggested that this may be untrue. ► Some potential artifacts from that study were identified and it was critically replicated. ► We too observed that cleaning after contamination did not impede exposure effects. ► Findings challenge assumptions about the negative impact of safety behaviors on exposure.