[…] according to a new study published in the journal Brain, Cognition and Mental Health, the parasite responsible for affecting the host’s brain and potentially causing neurological conditions may actually make the host more attractive.
Taking a sample of 35 infected people and 178 non-infected people, a separate group of “raters” were asked to rate each participant on their perceived attractiveness, while metrics that could play a role in attractiveness were taken from each. These included body mass index, face symmetry, minor ailments, and more.
When all the results were tallied, a significant difference between the two groups emerged. Infected people were rated as healthier and more attractive across the board, with infected men having more symmetrical faces and infected women also having more symmetry, more sexual partners, lower BMI, and higher perceived attractiveness.
The great thing is that this not only works on people, but the same effect was also found with rats. So whether you’re a person or whether you’re a rat, try some Toxoplasma gondii today!
That cat toxo is weird stuff. When it infects the brains of rats, it makes them attracted to the scent of cat urine, so they hang around where they ought to know they shouldn’t be. The cats eat the rats, and the parasite gets to complete its lifecycle within the cat’s body.
The details are murky to me, but a similar parasite infects the brains of ants, who become compelled to climb to the top of a stalk of grass and bite in, holding on for life, making them more likely to be eaten by a cow and complete that lifecycle within the cow’s body. In both cases, there’s literal mind control going on. What a time to be alive.
I definitely recommend reading the first half of the associated study which goes into the stuff about rats and sexual attractiveness, etc and is pretty bonkers stuff, especially if you were previously familiar.
Yes, I wondered about the correlation vs. causation thing as well. Does Toxoplasma gondii actually cause people to be more attractive, or are attractive people just more likely to contract it?
Yeah, 35 infected people is an awfully small group to test. At the very least we should be looking at an individual’s attractiveness before and after infection.
It may make people less picky in sexual partners, too. I think there is some documented relationship between toxoplasmosis and HIV that probably helped HIV spread when it was still rare.
…I have been fascinated by parasites and their evolutionary strategies. There are many newer books on the subject, Amazon sure has some suggestions. But some factoids remain:
Every species has at least one parasite that is specialised in it. Therefore, there are more parasite species than non parasite species. And many parasites have their own parasite in turn (Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em… but not at infinitum). And every time a species goes extinct, their parasite goes extinct too.
I would argue it might be more the reverse: that attractive people, for whatever reason, are likelier to be cat owners and become infected in the first place.
