A few months ago I’d referenced an article about how toxoplasma gondii, the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, can alter the behavior of not only rats but humans. Now it turns out that it not only alters human behavior, but does so dependent on the person’s sex.
“Interestingly, the effect of infection is different between men and women,” Dr Boulter writes in the latest issue of Australasian Science magazine.
“Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious, jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women.
“On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly, more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared with non-infected controls.
“In short, it can make men behave like alley cats and women behave like sex kittens”.
I’ve got to wonder if the reason for it making infected women sexier but men less attractive to women is that it reduces the likelyhood of two infected people breeding.
Moreover,
Another study showed people who were infected but not showing symptoms were 2.7 times more likely than uninfected people to be involved in a car accident as a driver or pedestrian, while other research has linked the parasite to higher incidences of schizophrenia.
Beautiful. Get infected, become a paranodi schizophrenic.