Image: T. gondii, Ke Hu and John M. Murray
A parasite found on cats may make you more entrepreneurial. Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that students infected with Toxoplasma Gondii were 1.4 times more likely to major in business and 1.7 times more likely to to pursue a management and entreprenurial pathway. It is thought that the parasite encourages risk taking behaviour in the host in an attempt to increase the chances of it spreading to other cats. For example, infected rats that take risks are more likely to be caught by cats and thus more likely to spread the parasite from the rat to the cat. The researchers also collated national statistics from 42 countries over 25 years and found that T.gondii infection rates correlated with entrpreneural activity!
