14 Myths About Sociopaths Movies and TV Keep Repeating

Sociopaths! You know ’em, you hate ’em -- they’re the monstrous underbelly of society. All those bad things people like to believe about Republicans or child predators or lobbyists, it’s all true about sociopaths -- depraved monsters dedicated to the suffering of others, mindless, abhorrent, awful. The type of creature that we can all rally against. No sympathy. No love. Hollow eyes. Oblivious to the suffering of others. A beast of emotionless destruction. (Gaston voice rises.)

But a lot of that's kinda bullshit? Humans have a lot of different stuff going on for them, but generally there's not a specific This version of human is just straight up evil. Everyone is multi-faceted, even the darkest people -- and sociopaths aren't even that. Sociopathy is typically a term referring to people who have Anti Social or Narcissistic Personality Disorder -- they're driven to find stimulus because their emotions are turned to the low setting, they have no shame or normal amounts of fear, no ability to feel guilty, an inability to connect with others in a meaningful way, a void blank of existence according to general media, but in reality they're not much different from someone who needs Zoloft for anxiety or therapy to keep from spiraling. Here are some facts about media's favorite scare-actors.