Pop culture has an interesting relationship with empathy, in that it often takes wildly conflicting views with it and the lack of it. The media, specifically tv and movies, portrays empathy as both an important, noble quality and as a major hindrance. In general, most heavily rely on the idea of empathy as humanity, having little-to-no empathy is left to the robots and the “psychopaths.” In works that take on this view, think most police procedurals, the high empathy characters are heroic. They stand up for the little-guy and ultimately save the day. While their empathy might sometimes cause them trouble, because they just care too much and let things become too personal, in the end, their empathy is seen as a positive thing.

Other works portray low empathy in a completely different way, as the key to being a genius. In these works, think most modern Sherlock adaptations and works inspired by it, characters with low empathy are total geniuses who can do more than everyone else and can do everything better. While the characters around them are busy dealing with things like emotions and caring about others, our genius is off solving the case or finding some long-lost treasure. All while insulting everyone around them for not being as focused and letting “unimportant” things distract them, and the character isn’t wrong because everyone else is seen as incompetent, often not being able to do their job. The message in these works is clear, empathy gets in the way of intellect.

The conflicting way that empathy is portrayed often leads to greater cultural misunderstandings of the concept.