Cat Parasite may affect our Psychology (2006) | Hacker News Reader

Cat Parasite may affect our Psychology (2006)

abcnews.go.com

32 pointsjbooth13 comments

Article headline is ridiculously overstated. How about: "Cat Parasite Has Some Odd Psychological Effects In People Who Are Infected By It, And So Probably Had Some Minor Influence On Cultural Evolution, Which Isn't Really All That Surprising, If You Think About It".

Ugh. I wish this myth would go away. I've encountered so many people that have heard of this and have no idea how credible it is.

If you have no idea, why do you call it a myth? Sounds as if you have the idea that it is only a myth.

He meant that the 'people that have heard this' have no idea. I'm not sure whether his sentence can be properly interpreted as such, but even if it's grammatically dubious, the intention is clear (to me). He probably knows that the effect is vastly overstated in popular accounts, as other commenters have pointed out.

I think the labeling of it as a cat parasite is interesting but misses the mark a bit. By messing with rat brains it helps feed cats. From the cat's perspective, it can sound more like a symbiotic relationship.

I need independent verification before I can believe such an improbable study.

http://edge.org/3rd_culture/sapolsky09/sapolsky09_index.html

An interesting video interview with Robert Sapolsky on Toxo

More on that in this episode of the wonderful radiolab:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2009/09/25

I knew it. I'm getting rid of that little beast right now!

duplicate

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=789517

The title of the article (not this post) is outrageous! "Cat Parasite Affects Everything We Feel and Do"

Even the content of the article itself disagrees with the title:

"He's not suggesting that it's a big player in cultural evolution. Lots of other things are more powerful, ranging from geography to weather to the availability of natural resources."

And that's the "popular account". Consider what the actual research paper probably said. Reminds me of this comic:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/files/2009/05...

Side comment: This is a bit of old news (2006).

Or this comic:

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623

That's why I toned it down -- I still thought it was cool, though. Apparently the parasite evolved by convincing rats that cats smell like fun, because it needs to make it to a cat's stomach to reproduce.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com