Here are some personal impressions from my own experience and that of friends (which should be taken with a grain of salt.)

*Sociopaths occupy 1-2% of the population, so a good majority of people who one meets are not sociopaths.

*Of those sociopaths who one does meet, most conceal their sociopathy.

*Combining the two factors above, it's quite possible to go through life without ever seeing evidence of sociopaths first hand. Thus, just because you've never seen firsthand evidence doesn't mean that you should rule out their existence.

*Many sociopaths do constantly manipulate others, but sometimes this is not a conscious choice. It can happen that (at least locally) when they tell lies they believe them. What's so sad about their situation is that they're often as much victims of their condition as they are perpetrators.

*If you want stories of people's experiences with sociopaths, check out emotional abuse forums online. Of course, in principle the people there could be deluded as to the nature of their experiences, but by going to such forums you can at least get some idea of the sort of sociopath that people report on encountering in real life as opposed to Hollywood's version.