Criminal psychologist explains the biggest misconception people have about psychopaths

A criminal psychologist has revealed the truth behind a common misconception about psychopaths.

A lot of people form an image of folks who have been diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder from films, books and true crime podcasts.

But given her line of work, Dr Julia Shaw has got a much better idea of what makes them tick - and she has kindly shared some of her expert insights with us lot.

As a criminal psychologist, she works alongside the police during investigations as well as acting as an expert witness in court.

"I'm interested in why people do terrible things," she told LADbible during an episode of Honesty Box. "I'm interested in the darkest sides of humanity.

"And murder, for many people, is the worst thing they can imagine or one of the worst things they can imagine somebody else doing.

Dr Shaw explained she became a criminal psychologist as she is extremely interested in how people behave (LADbible)

"The thing that I find interesting isn't just this idea that there's these murderers over here who are totally different from us, but how every one of us can move towards becoming a murderer ourselves.

"What makes me capable of doing the worst thing I can possibly imagine? That's why I'm interested in studying murderers."

For those who don't know, a psychopath is someone who has an antisocial personality disorder that makes them lack empathy, be manipulative and display reckless behaviours.

According to the NHS, people with this mental health condition may be prone to violent outbursts too.

Ted Bundy is arguably one of the most famous examples of how these tendencies can go hand in hand with a life of crime, as he's been dubbed a 'prototypical psychopath' by experts.

Ted Bundy is widely regarded as a psychopath by experts (Bettmann/Getty)

In Dr Shaw's eyes though, the general public have something of a skewed view on psychopaths.

People have been led to believe that they are 'all really clever', according to the author and TV star.

"That is not true," Dr Shaw said. "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 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're 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."

On top of that, Dr Shaw says a lot of people incorrectly think that every single person who commits murder is automatically a psychopath, however, she says this is also 'not true'.

Although she doesn't diagnose psychopaths, the expert did reveal how asking one simple question can help you spot a narcissist.