Risky Business – Infection and Entrepreneurship

This is one of the odder posts I have come across. For those who have not sat through Microbiology 101 Toxoplasma gondii is an extracellular parasite that causes the disease toxoplasmosis which is most commonly found in cats where it sexually reproduces. It is also known to infect rodents and in doing so seems to make them less afraid of cats. This lack of fear increases their chance of being eaten and thereby completing the life cycle of the parasite. It is also been implicated in behavioural alterations in humans.

Long story made short the paper sees a correlation between infection in humans and entrepreneurship. However, it should be noted that an estimated  up to 50% of humans have had exposure to the parasite. Yet another good reason to ban cats…….

Disciplines such as business and economics often rely on the assumption of rationality when explaining complex human behaviours. However, growing evidence suggests that behaviour may concurrently be influenced by infectious microorganisms. The protozoan Toxoplasma gondiiinfects an estimated 2 billion people worldwide and has been linked to behavioural alterations in humans and other vertebrates. Here we integrate primary data from college students and business professionals with national-level information on cultural attitudes towards business to test the hypothesis that T. gondii infection influences individual- as well as societal-scale entrepreneurship activities. Using a saliva-based assay, we found that students (n = 1495) who tested IgG positive for T. gondii exposure were 1.4× more likely to major in business and 1.7× more likely to have an emphasis in ‘management and entrepreneurship’ over other business-related emphases. Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T. gondiiinfection from the past 25 years with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of entrepreneurial activity, we found that infection prevalence was a consistent, positive predictor of entrepreneurial activity and intentions at the national scale, regardless of whether previously identified economic covariates were included. Nations with higher infection also had a lower fraction of respondents citing ‘fear of failure’ in inhibiting new business ventures. While correlational, these results highlight the linkage between parasitic infection and complex human behaviours, including those relevant to business, entrepreneurship and economic productivity.

More here – Proceedings of the Royal Society