Construction and preliminary validation of a Psychopathic Boldness Scale in college and online samples

Abstract

The triarchic model posits that boldness, meanness, and disinhibition comprise psychopathy. Critics have questioned whether boldness is essential to psychopathy because boldness is minimally related to meanness and disinhibition and is associated with positive outcomes such as psychological health. The aim of the present study was to develop a Psychopathic Boldness Scale (PBS) that would be more closely associated with the other components of the triarchic model and would be associated with antisocial behaviors and maladaptive traits. Data from two college student samples (a test development sample, N = 204 [79% female, 72% White], and a replication sample, N = 426 [81.5% female, 64% White]) and an online male validation sample (N = 125, 55% White) were used to select items and examine the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, item functioning, and convergent and discriminant validity of this scale. The PBS had a three-factor (higher order) structure in which the three factors (fearlessness, social potency, carefree rule breaking) were highly intercorrelated, justifying the use of a total score. The PBS was internally consistent, and all 21 items functioned well. The PBS was positively correlated with measures of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition. The PBS was positively associated with antisocial behavior, Machiavellianism, sensation seeking, fearlessness, and behavioral activation. It was negatively associated with agreeableness, conscientiousness, honesty-humility, altruism, and behavioral inhibition. Although additional research with diverse samples and biobehavioral correlates of boldness is needed, the PBS appears to be a promising measure that may address some of the criticisms of boldness as a component of psychopathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).