Deficient aversive-potentiated startle and the triarchic model of psychopathy: The role of boldness

• Boldness alone is related to deficient aversive-potentiated startle.
• Boldness rather than meanness better reflects the low-fear disposition of psychopathy.
• The boldness-related fear deficit is specific for threat, but not mutilation, scenes.
• Triarchic model of psychopathy is a powerful venue to examine deficits in psychopathy.

This study examined the contribution of the phenotypic domains of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition of the triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy (Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009) to deficient aversive-potentiated startle in a mixed-gender sample of 180 undergraduates. Eyeblink responses to noise probes were recorded during a passive picture-viewing task (erotica, neutral, threat, and mutilation). Deficient threat vs. neutral potentiation was uniquely related to increased boldness scores, thus suggesting that the diminished defensive reaction to aversive stimulation is specifically linked to the charm, social potency and venturesomeness features of psychopathy (boldness), but not to features such as callousness, coldheartedness and cruelty traits (meanness), even though both phenotypes theoretically share the same underlying low-fear disposition. Our findings provide further evidence of the differential association between distinct psychopathy components and deficits in defensive reactivity and strongly support the validity of the triarchic model of psychopathy in disentangling the etiology of this personality disorder.