Fake bad scale: the case of the missing construct,a response to Larrabee,Bianchini, Boone,and Rohling (2017)

The ‘Commentary’ of Drs. Larrabee, Bianchini, Boone, and Rohling (2017) attributes to us a view of the Fake Bad/Symptom Validity Scale (FBS/FBS-r) that is wholly erroneous, a view we do not hold and have never taken. In doing so, the authors have confused the thrust of our article with the assertions made in an earlier article which preceded publication of the FBS. This earlier article held that many physical and cognitive symptoms/complaints observed in personal injury plaintiffs are most parsimoniously understood as manifestations of the stresses that may routinely accompany plaintiffs’ involvement in such litigation. In this response, I therefore, wish to clarify this misunderstanding and to elaborate upon several of the issues raised in our article.