From Controversy to Confusion: A Commentary on How Marcus et al.'s (2025) Psychopathic Boldness Scale Further Muddies the Boldness Construct

The Psychopathic Boldness Scale (PBS; Marcus et al., 2025) is a newly developed 21-item self-report measure intended to assess boldness as it manifests within psychopathy. In this commentary, we raise concerns about the PBS's construct validity, particularly its conceptual and empirical overlap with antagonism-related traits. Drawing on theoretical analysis and results from Marcus et al., we evaluated how PBS items function relative to the Triarchic Psychopathy Measure (TriPM). Intraclass correlations (ICC) of overall correlational profiles revealed that the nomological network of the PBS more closely aligns with TriPM Meanness than with Boldness. Rather than clarifying the role of boldness within psychopathy, the PBS repackages maladaptive content typically captured by meanness/antagonism under the boldness label and results in a case of the jingle fallacy. We argue that this conflation undermines theoretical precision and sets the stage for a more difficult-to-integrate literature.