Enjoyment from watching others get hurt, and sociopathy

[J a c k]

When you think about the notion of taking enjoyment from watching other people get hurt, you think of a sociopath, right? You think of someone who isn't quite "normal," who doesn't have empathy and therefore isn't bothered by the pain of others... And even worse, actually likes seeing it. Thankfully, sociopaths only make up 4% of the population. Supposedly.

But I was having a conversation about it with someone the other day, and they made a good point. They pointed out that the "best parts" in watching contact sports like football, hockey, MMA, etc... are the big blows. They then said "is it really abnormal to enjoy watching others get hurt?"

This stumped me. While I personally don't take enjoymeny from watching that in sports, or even in movies where people are only getting pretend hurt, I must admit that MANY seemingly normal, non sociopathic people do. The popularity of MMA, by itself, is testimony to this... and how everyone cheers and gets excited when a football player gets a major blow, etc.
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And then I thought about the Colloseum in Ancient Rome, and how popular that was - watching people get eaten alive by animals or forced to kill each other with primitive weapons. It was fun for people. Thanks to a Netflix doc, I learned a few weeks ago that 40% of internet porn being viewed depicts violence against women. 40%! And people jerk off to that. And then I thought about the popularity of the Saw movies and how sadistic they are.
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What to make of this? I mean, if so many people enjoy watching others in pain in one form or another, is sociopathy even a thing?? How in the world is it so normal to enjoy watching other people's pain if we supposedly have empathy?

I don’t think there’s comparison between a person who enjoys torturing an innocent being who begs for mercy, and people who enjoy watching MMA , which has willing participants that can quit a fight at any time and walk in feeling proud and powerful. I mean... how? And in the movies SAW (which I can’t watch), people know they’re acting. If it was live footage of actual torture, I’d say viewers are in fact sick. I just fail to see where watching contact sports or movies can compare to a sociopath mentality or prove lack of empathy.