Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Why You May Be More Likely to Start a Business If You Own a Cat

Why You May Be More Likely to Start a Business If You Own a Cat
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - AUGUST 4: A cat standing on a shelf at the "Lucky Cat House" pet hotel with rehabilitation center in Istanbul, Turkey on August 04, 2018. (Photo by Elif Ozturk/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Um...

Wannabe business owners, take heed: new research shows “the entrepreneurial spirit” may be a load of poop — literally.

A team of scientists led by a professor from the University of Colorado Boulder has found an association between entrepreneurship and infection by toxoplasma gondii, a protozoan parasite found in cat feces.


Many first hear of toxoplasma gondii and its associated infection, toxoplasmosis, from warnings that pregnant women should stay away from cleaning cat boxes. The parasite is known to cause miscarriages and birth defects, and can pass from mother to baby. For those with healthy immune systems, infection with toxoplasma gondii goes largely unnoticed, with either no or mild symptoms. In fact, in the U.S., approximately 11 percent of people older than age 6 have been infected at some point, and in other parts of the world, the infection rate is closer to 95 percent.

Toxoplasma’s mode of infection is to infiltrate the brain. In mice, this causes a lack of fear — specifically of cats, which allows the felines to more easily catch and eat the infected, unafraid mice, thereby ensuring the parasite’s reproduction.

In people, toxoplasmosis has been associated with an increased risk of “car accidents, mental illness, neuroticism, drug abuse and suicide,” the research team wrote in its study, published in late July in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a biological-sciences journal. The team couldn’t help but wonder, then, if the same mechanism that toxoplasma worked on mice’s brains — that is, to make them risk-seekers — would work on people. Lead researcher Stefanie Johnson, an associate professor of management, collaborated with her husband, a biology professor, to test their theory on students.

First, they collected saliva from 1,495 individuals, finding that those who tested positive for T. gondii were “1.4 times more likely to major in business and 1.7 times more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship’ over other business-related emphases,” the researchers wrote in their report.

Second, they tested 197 people attending “entrepreneurship events.” Those who tested positive for T. gondii were “1.8 times more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees.”

Third, the group analyzed infection disease databases and the global entrepreneurship data, finding that countries with higher T. gondii infection rates indeed had higher levels of entrepreneurship activity.

“Economics research has historically emphasized the importance of rationality in explaining human decisions, with individuals considering benefits and risks before acting in their self-interest,” the scientists wrote. “T. gondii exposure, however, might nudge individuals toward higher risk, higher reward activities and deviating from economic theory.”

Just how T. gondii reduces fear of risk is not known, but it’s thought to have something to do with neurotransmitters or perhaps even hormones like testosterone. In any case, the thought that a protozoan parasite could be inside a person’s brain, controlling his or her thoughts, isn’t necessarily welcome, even if it could mean owning one’s own business.

“As humans, we like to think that we are in control of our actions,” study lead co-author Pieter Johnson, Stefanie Johnson’s husband, said in a University of Colorado Boulder press release. “But emerging research shows that the microorganisms we encounter in our daily lives have the potential to influence their hosts in significant ways.”

More from News

Audra McDonald
@audramcdonald/Instagram

Audra McDonald Speaks Out After Autograph-Seeking Fan Followed Her Home—And People Are Horrified

Broadway legend and recent star of Gypsy Audra McDonald unfortunately finished the show's run on a sour note, as she informed fans on her Instagram.

The Tony-winning actor and singer, 55, started by explaining that the "stage door" practice, where Broadway actors exit through a side door of the theater to greet fans and sign autographs, is common but not expected or required. Some actors love to do it, others would rather not, and she stressed that there are countless reasons an actor might choose not to on any given night.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from Victor Nieves' videos
@notvictornieves/TikTok; @goodtrouble/TikTok

MAGA TikToker Gets Brutally Dragged After Tired 'Slippery Slope' Rant About Gay Marriage

The moment many LGBTQ+ people have warned about seems to be dawning as Kim Davis, the infamous Kentucky clerk who went to jail over refusing to process same-sex marriages, has resurfaced.

Now out of jail, Davis is asking the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v Hodges, the case that granted the right to same-sex marriage in 2015 and the violation of which landed Davis in jail.

Keep ReadingShow less
Riley Gaines
Ivan Apfel/Getty Images

Riley Gaines Blasted After Calling Trump Critics 'Domestic Terrorists' In Unhinged Tweet

Fading MAGA darling Riley Gaines found herself facing irrelevance like all the blond "it girls" before her that were once embraced then discarded by MAGA Republican President Donald Trump's followers, like Ann Coulter, Megyn Kelly, Kellyanne Conway, Tomi Lahren, and Kaitlin Bennett.

If that last name made you say, "Who‽," then you know what Gaines is facing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jinkx Monsoon
Good Morning America/YouTube

Trans Actor Jinkx Monsoon Expertly Shades MAGA Lawmakers Who Are Trying To 'Rewrite History'

In a very timely off-the-cuff response, Broadway performer Jinkx Monsoon called out MAGA GOP lawmakers and Republican President Donald Trump for their attempts to whitewash history.

Speaking to Good Morning America about her star turn as the lead in Cole Escola’s Tony Award-winning hit Broadway show Oh, Mary!, the hosts proposed a rapid-fire game that they titled "Oh, Jinkx!."

Keep ReadingShow less
Person raising their hands in excitement
Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

People Who Turned Their Lives Around After Age 35 Share How They Did It

There's this weird pressure in the world to know what you're going to do with your life when you're between 18 and 20, work hard to get it, and then be satisfied with that for the rest of your life. But for many people, they're not in a position to attain their dream life when they're 20 years out.

That said, it's never too late to get a fresh start, even when you're around the middle of your life.

Keep ReadingShow less