Criminal psychologist reveals the biggest misconception about psychopaths and it might surprise you

A criminal psychologist has slammed a common belief about psychopaths that we often see play out in the movies.

When we think about psychopaths, your mind might jump to the likes of New York City investment-banker-turned-serial-killer, Patrick Bateman (played by Christian Bale) in the 2000 movie, American Psycho, or the iconic 1991 horror, The Silence of the Lambs, where we see Antony Hopkins play the crazed cannibalistic serial murderer and psychiatrist, Hannibal Lecter.

True crime and horror movie fans alike might draw from such portrayals that manipulation, deception, dishonesty, a lack of empathy and a high IQ form the makeup of a psychopath in real life.

However, Dr Julia Shaw, a German-Canadian criminal psychologist who has worked with killers and legit psycho's on a regular basis has slammed the depiction.

Speaking to LADbible Stories during an episode of Honesty Box, the 38-year-old psychologist said the biggest misconception about psychopaths is 'that they're really clever'.

Dr Hannibal Lecter, the fictional psychiatrist and murderer, was portrayed as extremely clever in the movies (Orion Pictures/Strong Heart/Demme Production)

"That is not true," she continued. "So if you look at the people who have a diagnosis of psychopathy, you almost always see that they have a below average IQ.

"There's no such thing as this, like, psychopath who on average is just really clever and really manipulative.

"Yes, they're manipulative, but they're often also quite bad at being manipulative and they've not manipulative in a clever way, necessarily.

"So I think we need to stop thinking that psychopaths are really clever, intelligent geniuses because most of them are not."

Her insight comes as psychologists have long been rallying against the so-called 'Hannibal Lecter myth'.

Brian Boutwell of St Louis University in Missouri told New Scientist that it's more than likely we've met a psychopath at some point in our lives, considering they make up one percent of the population.

A person can only be deemed a psychopath if they achieve a certain score on a test of specific traits, which includes callousness, aggression, impulsiveness - though interestingly, not necessarily criminality.

Dr Shaw said they're not really very clever (YouTube/LADbible Stories)

According to Verywellmind, psychopathic traits can include antisocial behavior, narcissism, charm, lack of guilt and/or empathy, lack of fear and other unemotional traits.

Dr Shaw also said another inaccurate misconception is that all murderers are psychopaths.

Meanwhile, Boutwell told the outlet: "Not all psychopaths will break the law or hurt someone, but the odds of them doing so are higher."

"Psychopaths are impulsive, have run-ins with the law and often get themselves hurt,” he continued. “That led me to think they’re not overly intelligent.”

Likewise, Matt DeLisi at Iowa State University pointed out research actually suggests most psychopathic killers aren't very bright at all.

In putting the Hannibal Lecter myth to bed, he said: "The character promulgated the notion that psychopaths were highly intelligent, and there were real offenders that embodied this, like Ted Bundy.

"But I have interviewed thousands of offenders, some of which are very psychopathic, and I have found that the opposite is true.”

DeLisi continued to find that psychopaths tend to perform poorly in school, dubbing then 'very sensation-seeking' as opposed to bookish, and more likely to engage in substance abuse and sometimes actually conduct themselves inarticulately.

“They talk over you in a brusque, aggressive style,” he added.