Posted in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Wednesday, a study showed that the students who tested Toxoplasma gondii were probably to do business.
People can take this virus from infested water or undercooked, contaminated meat, but they can also contract this infection this infection from cat poop.
A group of experts said that there is a connection between exposure to T. gondii and entrepreneurial behavior.
“We can see the association in terms of the number of businesses and the intent of participants, but we don’t know if the businesses started by T.gondii- positive individuals are more likely to succeed or fail in the long run,” according to Stefanie Johnson. “New ventures have high failure rates, so a fear of failure is quite rational. T.gondii might just reduce that rational fear.”
1500 ungraduated students were tested and 20% were positive. The students tested positive, had a higher rate to be a business major than those who were healthy. But, they also collected saliva from people who were at entrepreneurship events and the ones who tested it positive, were likely to have started a company.
After that, they wanted to do the test on a global level.
The number of the persons infected is close to 2 billion around the globe. Some of the symptoms are muscle aches, swollen lymph glands, damage to the eyes and brain.
However is still unclear how toxoplasmosis can influence the human’s behavior. Another study showed that people with toxoplasmosis had a bigger rate of car accidents.
Specialists can not say if the parasite caused anyone a feeling of being less afraid of failure or to be inclined to entrepreneurship.
There are other parasites that can affect human behavior such as Prevotella and Bacteroides, or even Chlorovirus ATCV-1.
