APA Citation
Lilienfeld, S., Waldman, I., Landfield, K., Watts, A., Rubenzer, S., & Faschingbauer, T. (2012). Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership. *Journal of Personality and Social Psychology*, 103(3), 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029392
Summary
Scott Lilienfeld and colleagues examined psychopathic traits in U.S. presidents, focusing on "fearless dominance"—boldness, social confidence, and low anxiety. Using expert personality ratings, they found fearless dominance was associated with both positive outcomes (rated performance, crisis leadership) and negative outcomes (unethical behavior). This research distinguishes between aspects of psychopathy, showing that boldness components may be adaptive in certain contexts while other psychopathic features remain problematic.
Why This Matters for Survivors
This research on "fearless dominance" in leaders helps understand the overlap between narcissism and psychopathy in Cluster B personality disorders. The boldness that helps some people achieve power—the confidence, dominance, and lack of fear—has both adaptive and destructive aspects. Understanding this helps explain why charming, confident leaders sometimes turn out to have dark personality features.
What This Research Establishes
Fearless dominance is a distinct psychopathy component. Psychopathy includes different features: fearless dominance (boldness) versus self-centered impulsivity and callousness. These have different relationships to outcomes.
Fearless dominance predicts both positive and negative outcomes. In presidents, it was associated with rated leadership performance and also with unethical behavior. The same trait enables both action and rule-breaking.
Some “dark” traits can be contextually adaptive. Boldness, social confidence, and low anxiety help in contexts requiring decisive action and public presence. This explains why some individuals with dark personality features succeed professionally.
The full syndrome is problematic. While fearless dominance alone shows mixed outcomes, full psychopathy (including callousness and impulsivity) predicts more consistently negative outcomes. The components matter.
Why This Matters for Survivors
Understanding their charm and success. The narcissist’s boldness and confidence—what Lilienfeld calls fearless dominance—may have been genuinely impressive and may have contributed to their professional success. These traits aren’t fake; they’re part of a larger pattern.
The attractive traits come with others. You were drawn to confidence and boldness. But these traits come packaged with others—lack of empathy, manipulation, ethical shortcuts—that created relationship problems. You can’t get the appealing parts without the destructive ones.
Their success doesn’t invalidate your experience. The narcissist may be professionally successful, which can make you doubt your assessment. This research shows how certain dark personality features can be professionally adaptive while remaining personally destructive.
Understanding Cluster B overlap. Narcissism and psychopathy overlap. Understanding fearless dominance helps explain the confident, bold presentation many narcissists share with psychopathic individuals.
Clinical Implications
Assess for boldness alongside other features. Fearless dominance can be assessed and has different implications than other psychopathic/narcissistic features. Understanding this profile supports better clinical formulation.
Contextualize success. Patients may be confused that the narcissist/psychopathic individual is professionally successful. Explain how boldness can be adaptive in some contexts while remaining problematic in relationships.
Distinguish boldness from health. Confidence and low anxiety aren’t themselves pathological. The question is whether they’re part of a syndrome including callousness, manipulation, and lack of empathy. Boldness alone isn’t the problem.
Consider workplace and leadership contexts. Patients dealing with narcissistic or psychopathic leaders may benefit from understanding how certain traits help achieve leadership while others create problems in that role.
How This Research Is Used in the Book
Lilienfeld’s fearless dominance research appears in chapters on Cluster B overlap and leadership:
“Scott Lilienfeld’s research on ‘fearless dominance’—boldness, confidence, low anxiety—helps explain why narcissists and psychopaths often succeed professionally. These traits are genuinely adaptive in some contexts: they help with decisive action, public presence, and risk-taking. But they come packaged with others—lack of empathy, ethical shortcuts, manipulation—that create relationship problems. The charming boldness that attracted you wasn’t fake; it just didn’t come separately from the destructive traits.”
Historical Context
This 2012 study extended Lilienfeld’s influential work distinguishing components of psychopathy. Traditional views treated psychopathy as a unitary syndrome; Lilienfeld and colleagues showed that boldness/fearless dominance has different correlates than callousness/meanness and disinhibition.
This distinction has been influential in understanding why some individuals with dark personality features succeed while others fail, why certain traits are adaptive in some contexts, and how psychopathy and narcissism overlap. The research contributed to more nuanced understanding of personality pathology that recognizes both its costs and its contextual advantages.
Further Reading
- Lilienfeld, S.O., et al. (2015). Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful leadership. Assessment, 22(5), 611-626.
- Patrick, C.J., et al. (2009). Triarchic conceptualization of psychopathy: Developmental origins of disinhibition, boldness, and meanness. Development and Psychopathology, 21(3), 913-938.
- Babiak, P., & Hare, R.D. (2006). Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go to Work. HarperBusiness.
- Smith, S.F., & Lilienfeld, S.O. (2013). Psychopathy in the workplace: The knowns and unknowns. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 18(2), 204-218.
About the Author
Scott O. Lilienfeld, PhD (1960-2020) was Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology at Emory University. He was a leading researcher on psychopathy, personality disorders, and evidence-based practice.
Lilienfeld's work on the distinction between different components of psychopathy—fearless dominance versus self-centered impulsivity—has influenced how these traits are understood in both clinical and applied contexts.
Historical Context
This 2012 study appeared amid growing interest in the "dark triad" (narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) and how these traits function in workplace and political contexts. Lilienfeld's distinction between boldness and mean/disinhibited psychopathic features helped explain why some apparently psychopathic individuals succeed while others fail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Fearless dominance is a component of psychopathy involving social boldness, confidence, and low anxiety. Unlike the criminal/antisocial aspects of psychopathy, fearless dominance can be adaptive in some contexts. It overlaps with but isn't identical to narcissism.
Both involve social confidence and sense of superiority. Fearless dominance emphasizes boldness and low anxiety; narcissism emphasizes grandiosity and need for admiration. They overlap in Cluster B personality patterns and often co-occur in leaders.
Boldness, social confidence, and lack of fear help in leadership contexts requiring quick decisions, public presence, and willingness to take risks. These traits are genuinely adaptive in some situations, even when they're part of broader personality pathology.
The study found fearless dominance associated with unethical behavior alongside positive leadership outcomes. The same boldness that enables action enables disregard for rules. The trait has both adaptive and destructive potential.
No. Psychopathy involves personality traits (callousness, boldness, disinhibition) that don't necessarily lead to criminality. Some psychopathic individuals become successful in business, politics, or other fields. The trait profile matters for outcomes.
Researchers used personality ratings from historians and biographers who had studied each president extensively. Multiple experts rated each president on personality dimensions, allowing systematic comparison without direct clinical examination.
It means some psychopathic traits (boldness) can be adaptive in leadership while others (callousness, impulsivity) are problematic. The question is which psychopathic features and in what context. Pure boldness may help; the full psychopathy syndrome typically doesn't.
The narcissist's boldness and confidence may have attracted you and may have helped them succeed professionally. But these traits come with others—lack of empathy, manipulation, disregard for rules—that create relationship problems. The appealing traits don't come separately.