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Eating disorders are a great cause of concern because of the high mortality rates. Furthermore, eating disorders like Anorexia Nervosa (AN) are highly prevalent in young females and very resistant to treatment. To find a treatment with higher success rates, we must develop a better understanding of the factors that underlie AN. AN shows high comorbidity with anxiety disorders, such as high levels of fear for food and weight gain and avoidance behaviors related to fear. A handful of studies have shown that the avoidance behaviors in anxiety disorders are related to fear-related processes (decrease in anxiety), but also to reward-related processes (i.e., relief). This study aims to investigate mechanisms underlying excessive avoidance behavior and the role of relief as a reinforcer of avoidance behavior in a high-risk population for AN, i.e., students with high score on Drive for Thinness. We examined if a positive relationship exists between Drive for Thinness (DT), Bulimia (B), Body Dissatisfaction (BD) and avoidance behavior and if a positive relationship exists between Drive for Thinness and relief pleasantness. We investigated 276 healthy participants who filled out the Eating Disorder Inventory-II (EDI-II) to establish their level of eating disorder symptoms. After that, they performed a modified version of a validated Avoidance and Relief Task. The experimental task consisted of two phases: (1) in the Pavlovian fear conditioning phase the participants learned which conditioned stimulus (CS) was followed by an unconditional stimulus (US), i.e., an aversive picture, and which CS was not. This phase was followed by (2) the avoidance phase, where the aversive picture could be omitted by clicking a red button after an avoidable CS (CS+av) but not after the unavoidable CS (CS+unav). The button press was also made available after a CS-, which is never followed by an US whether an avoidance action was executed or not. Avoidance, US-expectancy and relief pleasantness ratings were measured during the various phases of the task. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) showed a significant relationship between the level of eating disorder symptoms and persistent avoidance behavior. However, Linear Mixed Model (LMM) analyses could provide no evidence for relief as a negative reinforcer of avoidance actions in individuals with elevated levels of eating disorder symptoms. To conclude, excessive and ineffective avoidance behavior exists in participants with subclinical eating disorder symptoms.