If you’ve always wondered what it takes to be a badass, a new study reveals the strict criteria.
Following questionnaires involving over 2,000 people, researchers in the US have officially improved on the dictionary definition of the term.
A badass has an ‘outer toughness’ (consisting of physical strength, a ‘formidable presence’, or both), an inner toughness (such as moral resilience and courage), or both.
That’s why ‘radically’ different men and women – ranging from peace advocates to fierce warriors – can be considered badasses, according to the experts.
Famous badasses include Genghis Khan (AD 1162 to 1227), the brutal founder of the Mongol Empire responsible for the deaths of around 40 million people, they say.
Khan was a prolific lover, fathering hundreds of children across his territories, and some scientists think he has 16 million male descendants alive today.
Other badasses are American former boxer Mike Tyson, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai and South African anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela.
For example, Mandela, described as the researchers as ‘arguably quite badass’, showed great courage in his lifetime, while Tyson is physically strong or even scary.
American former professional boxer Mike Tyson (pictured) may appear physically strong or frightening, the study claims – but these are only a few traits that make a badass
Genghis Khan (AD 1162 to 1227) was the brutal founder of the Mongol Empire responsible for the deaths of around 40 million people
The study was conducted by Breanna K. Nguyen, a cognitive scientist at Yale University, and Michael Prinzing, a psychologist at Baylor University.
‘Radically different kinds of people, ranging from peaceful advocates to fierce warriors, can each be considered badasses,’ they say in their paper.
‘The present work investigated how people think about what it means to be a badass, offering insight into what would otherwise seem to be a deeply puzzling concept.’
Many different people have been described as badasses, the team say, including Genghis Khan, Mike Tyson, Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai, as well as Navy SEALs.
Combined with the dictionary definitions of the term, we’re led to believe a badass is someone bad, mean or scary but also good, impressive or admirable.
For example, Cambridge Dictionary defines a badass as ‘a bad or slightly frightening person’ but also as ‘someone or something that you admire or find impressive’.
However, Genghis Khan fits the first part of that definition and not the second, while Malala Yousafzai, by contrast, does not fit the first part, but does fit the second.
In an attempt to provide a better definition, researchers conducted a series of four experiments with a total of 2,020 adults from a mix of ages and racial backgrounds.
This word cloud shows adjectives used by participants to describe ‘badassness’. Size of word corresponds with the relative frequency of the word
Nelson Mandela, described as the researchers as ‘arguably quite badass’, wrote that courage ‘is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it’
The researchers asked what makes a person truly badass, while presenting them with scenarios with fictional characters to assess perceived levels of ‘badassness’.
Adjectives commonly described as badass included ‘not afraid’, ‘tough’, ‘true’, ‘good’, ‘confident’, ‘brave’, ‘willing’, ‘independent’, ‘positive’ and ‘able’.
The team also found that when people decided if someone was badass or not they would consider not only ‘superficial’ outer toughness, but also inner toughness.
Badassness in a superficial sense is realised by ‘outer’ toughness – such as having a large stature and rugged appearance or physical strength, while badassness in the deeper sense is realised by ‘inner’ toughness, such as courage, resilience or strength of character.
Other inner traits considered badass include resisting social pressure, doing the right thing morally and taking on difficult challenges.
People not considered badass in a superficial sense – meaning they look skinny or weak on the outside – can ‘still embody the deeper essence of badassness’ by having these traits.
Overall, a badass can have either these outer or inner traits – explaining how people as different as Genghis Khan and Malala Yousafzai can both be badassess – but the biggest badasses of all may have both.
‘Whereas a warrior like Genghis is a paradigm of outer toughness, Malala is a paradigm of this more abstract, inner toughness,’ the duo say in their paper.
Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai is a young woman famous for her moral convictions and advocacy for women’s education
The first sense in which a person can be badass might have to do with being physically strong and frightening (e.g. Navy SEALs, pictured)
The researchers say the term ‘badass’ may have started off with one meaning, but over time expanded to become far broader.
‘Hence, the original meaning might be very negative, but the broader meaning might encompass certain positive qualities as well,’ they conclude.
This new approach to assess what makes a badass could be used to asses other social groups in the future, such as hippies and nerds.
‘For example, we might associate the concept of being a hippie with certain concrete features (long hair, tie-dyed clothes, 1960s music festivals), but one might think that this concept also gets at something deeper,’ the team add.
The new study has been published as a pre-print paper on PsyArXiv, meaning it’s yet to be peer reviewed.