Why are geniuses often portrayed as socially awkward?

handyman_hank

There is a Hollywood stereotype that very intelligent characters are often socially awkward and struggle to understand human interaction: Sherlock Holmes, in almost every interpretation of his character he insults people unknowingly, misses obvious things, and is crass and rude Sheldon Cooper, a physics genius who has a prickly and awkward character and often fails to interact with people around him Tony Stark, a genius mechanical engineer....

Originally asked by Liath on Stack Exchange (movies) (CC BY-SA 3.0).

uphilltech

Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:

As all stereotypes, it's an oversimplification. Our culture is focused mainly (or almost exclusively) on the material, so the "important" traits are physical: strength, beauty, knowledge/intelligence (often wrong intertwined), money, power,... This, being still too complicated for the pop culture, is simplified further: power means money, good physical traits will give you both (at least by the end of the movie),... so, you're left with body and mind as the only two important traits (now my answer is a bit of an oversimplification, but not as much). Another simplification is that pretty = sociable. So, those not pretty are not sociable, which is the reason why such persons become, as you...

Full answer by Vedran Šego: https://movies.stackexchange.com/a/14079 (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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