June 14, 2005

Have cats affected your brain yet?

Have they perhaps changed your personality causing you to exhibit "sex kitten" or "alley cat" behavior?
Professor Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague ... subjected more than 300 volunteers to personality profiling while also testing them for toxoplasma.

He found the women infected with toxoplasma spent more money on clothes and were consistently rated as more attractive. “We found they were more easy-going, more warm-hearted, had more friends and cared more about how they looked,” he said. “However, they were also less trustworthy and had more relationships with men.”

By contrast, the infected men appeared to suffer from the “alley cat” effect: becoming less well groomed undesirable loners who were more willing to fight. They were more likely to be suspicious and jealous. “They tended to dislike following rules,” Flegr said.

So a disease carried by cats makes you act like a cat? That seems awfully bizarre, yet it's hard to shake off the significance of a brain-altering parasite that half of us have -- and 80-90% of French and Germans have!

IN THE COMMENTS: Lots of choice wisecracks!

7 comments:

TwistedNoggin said...

that's really fascinating. Lends extra meaning to the term "catty".

I'm always around cats, though, and I'm honest to a fault, trustworthy, and have no friends. (women usually clique up with other catty, back-stabby, gossipy women, not honest nerds)
:)

Laura Reynolds said...

I guess that "more willing to fight" part hasn't quite affected the French yet, although the rest seems to fit.

John Stansbury said...

look, I'm like that, and I haven't had a cat since the 80s. how long till I get...um...fixed?

Be said...

Some dead French guy from a long time ago (Montesquieu, I think) said that all you needed to know about human nature you could learn by studying cats.

Maybe he was on to something. Maybe he just had catbox duty, too. Who knows.

goesh said...

Alas! A Tom ha'th peed upon my brain!
verily it do'th explain
why from grabbing buttocks n'er could'st I refrain
despite the lass's looks of disdain
the cat's meow, lo! a gentleman's bane
-LDM

amba said...

Is it April Fool's Day or am I missing something? This sounds like a hoax story to me . . . ow.

But don't forget that Mark Twain said, "If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat."

Ron said...

You have to admit...if Clinton were writing this comment, you know he'd been gettin' in a good p**** joke...

But all MY interns are more discreet...