Schizophrenia makes people hear violent and threatening voices.

Schizophrenia manifests itself differently in each individual and comprises a wide range of symptoms. Auditory hallucinations and other sorts of sensory illusions, such as hearing voices, are common in certain persons. A common media cliché is that a person with schizophrenia hears a scary voice in their brain encouraging them to do violent acts. According to study, people's interpretations of auditory hallucinations may be impacted by their culture. Although patients with schizophrenia in the United States were more likely to describe nasty and threatening voices, people with schizophrenia in India and Ghana had mostly good encounters with their voices.

One explanation for the disparity might be sociocultural factors. Voices were perceived as invasive to one's private life in individualist countries such as the United States, but individuals in collectivist societies stressing community felt more comfortable forming relationships with their voices.