You just knew your cat was messing with your mind… […]

You just knew your cat was messing with your mind… but lo and behold, they make women more smart and kind, and men more dumb and foolhardy!

Here are some delicious excerpts from UCSB Engineering:
“Of all the discomforting, disturbing and downright creepy ways that parasites manipulate their hosts, mind-control might just be the most eye-opening—and humans aren’t immune.

Cats are Toxoplasma’s primary host, although it infects all warm-blooded animals in all habitats. It’s in the air, in the sea, on land. Toxo’s everywhere. It’s probably the most successful organism on the planet.

Mouse mind-control helps Toxoplasma host-hop from rodent to cat, but the parasite also messes with the brains of humans it colonizes.

Humans infected with the parasite—from infected meat or contaminated cat feces—exhibit various long-term personality changes. They’re subtle, but significant at a population level.

Fascinatingly, the effects vary according to gender. Infected women tend to be more intelligent, conscientious, kind and outgoing, while infected men are apt to be less intelligent and to take more risks. Infected people of both sexes are more prone to worry, self-doubt and guilt.

At least 20 percent of U.S. teenagers and adults are infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and it’s thought that worldwide, a third of the population may play host to Toxoplasma.

The prevalence of the parasite varies greatly around the globe because of factors such as climate, food preparation and consumption practices and the degree of contact with cats. In some areas, such as France, with its tradition of eating raw or lightly cooked meats, most of the population is infected, but in other parts of the globe it’s exceedingly rare. In his 2006 paper, Lafferty found a correlation between this variation and differences in “aggregate personalities” around the world and concluded that Toxoplasma could be responsible for some of the global variation in human culture.”