Comments | differenceblog: "Alley Cats and Sex Kittens"

differenceblog

"Alley Cats and Sex Kittens"

Dec 27, 2006 09:51

Continuing yesterday's theme, a story in The Age (Aus) reports that a parasite present in up to 40% of adults worldwide may have undiscovered effects on human behavior. Toxoplasma gondii may be responsible for changes in "sexual attractiveness, IQ, schizophrenia and the likelihood of being in a car accident." The article suggests that men ( Read more... )

schizophrenia, super-ego, promiscuity, virginia ironside, personality, pets, psychology, intelligence, cats, gender differences, attractiveness

Comments 7

astrogeek01 December 27 2006, 15:25:20 UTC

I, obviously, am extremely good looking and friendly. ;)

differenceblog December 27 2006, 15:28:55 UTC

Can I at least get an "amen" on "This research is bullshit"?

camilla_anna December 27 2006, 16:19:59 UTC

Ekk and I both adore cats.

Come to your own conclusions.

:P

drinkywinky December 27 2006, 16:27:15 UTC

This story from This American Life talks about parasites near the end, and it's really cool stuff. It discusses a particular parasite which starts off in ants, and makes them want to climb up when they'd normally climb down, so that they'd be more likely to get eaten by (and the parasite can move to) sheep.

Compared to this, the parasite you describe sounds very plausible.

differenceblog December 27 2006, 16:30:57 UTC

I don't mean to suggest that parasites might not cause behavioral changes. I mean, lots of diseases (rabies comes rapidly to mind) cause behavioral changes. But the idea that it makes women more attractive seems exceedingly BS loaded.

Of course, ratings of attractiveness are largely dependent on grooming, so I suppose it's possible.