Your cat's parasites could become an entrepreneur

A study published today reveals a particular link between infection by the parasite of toxoplasma present in the excrement of cats ] and the intrepid behavior of the entrepreneur who decides to create a society and to do it must overcome the fear that it fails.

The study was published in the scientific portal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and considered a sample of individuals and statistics from various countries of the world

The Toxoplasma gondii is a protozoan parasite causing toxoplasmosis that lives in various animal species, but can only reproduce sexually in the intestines of wild or domestic cats . The man is infected by toxoplasma by contact with feline feces or by ingestion of undercooked infected meat.

Once infected, parasites remain in the body permanently. However, the infection is only dangerous for people whose immune system is weakened – such as those with AIDS symptoms – and for pregnant women, as this can harm the fetus. It is estimated that more than one-third of the human population is permanently infected by the Toxoplasma gondii .

One of the features of this parasite is that you can change the behavior of your host. For example, the mice and rats that acquire it by contact, over time begin to lose the instinctive fear of their predators, such as cats and in some cases they are even attracted to the smells felines .

As the human brain retains similarities to that of rodents, it has been documented that some people infected by toxoplasma are more likely to suffer from schizophrenia, abuse alcohol, suicide adopt aggressive, risky or difficult behavior rules. As a result, a team of researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder was tasked to ascertain whether Toxoplasma gondii could alter the human brain to turn it into that of a entrepreneur .

Just as the mouse requires to have lost the fear of being devoured to walk in front of the jaws of a cat likewise a entrepreneur must miss the fear fail and waste your time and, what's more painful, your money – which happens often.

To test whether the toxoplasm ] fear reduced to failure among entrepreneurs Stefanie Johnson-psychologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and lead author of saliva samples analyzed by researching nearly 1,500 students to detect the presence of IgM antibodies, which reveal an earlier infection by toxoplasma .

With the result obtained, Johnson realized that students infected with toxoplasma were 1.4 times more likely to enter careers related to business, and 1.7 times more likely to become contractors or entrepreneurs instead of opting for safer options such as accounting.

the researchers did the same test among 197 people who attended an event of contractors and found that those infected with toxoplasma were 1.8 times more likely to 39 have started their own business. Finally, the statistics were taken by Toxoplasma gondii and they noted that in the most affected countries, the number of contractors who had overcome the fear of creating theirs was greater .

"The relationship between toxoplasma and entrepreneurship is profound because we fundamentally assert that a parasitic microorganism is responsible, to some extent, for the 39, economic activity of a country, "said Johnson. The study is available in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B .