In addition to the natural characteristics inherent to both Người sói and humans, ma sói are often attributed strength and speed far beyond those of Người sói hoặc men. The werewolf is generally held as a European character, although its lore spread through the world in later times. Shape-shifters, similar to werewolves, are common in tales from all over the world, most notably amongst the Native Americans, though most of them involve animal forms other than wolves. they can cause others to become ma sói bởi biting hoặc wounding them.There is also a illness called lycanthropy in which a patient believes he hoặc she is, hoặc has transformed into, an animal and behaves accordingly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical lycanthropy to distinguish it from its use in legends. Despite its origin as a term for man-wolf transformations only, lycanthropy is used in this sense for động vật of any type