08.20.06
Toxoplasma gondii
Check out this article about the culture shaping parasite, Toxoplasma gondii. Last time I read about this parasite was in Stuff Magazine, issue #1.
“Toxoplasma appears to explain 30% of the variation in neuroticism among countries, 15% of the uncertainty avoidance among Western nations and 30% of the sex role differences among Western nations,” Lafferty said via e-mail.
Now whats crazy is how the parasite spreads:
In 2000, Webster reported that rats infected with Toxoplasma are less fearful of and, in some cases, can even be attracted to their feline predators. She surmised that the parasite subtly manipulates a rat’s behavior to increase the rodent’s chances of being eaten by a cat—the only animal in which it can reproduce—thereby upping the odds of the parasite reproducing.