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The relation of toxoplasma infection and sexual attraction to fear, danger, pain, and submissiveness

The result's identifiers

  • Result code in IS VaVaI

    <a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00023752%3A_____%2F16%3A43915094" target="_blank" >RIV/00023752:_____/16:43915094 - isvavai.cz</a>

  • Alternative codes found

    RIV/00216208:11310/16:10326830

  • Result on the web

    <a href="http://evp.sagepub.com/content/14/3/1474704916659746" target="_blank" >http://evp.sagepub.com/content/14/3/1474704916659746</a>

  • DOI - Digital Object Identifier

    <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1474704916659746" target="_blank" >10.1177/1474704916659746</a>

Alternative languages

  • Result language

    angličtina

  • Original language name

    The relation of toxoplasma infection and sexual attraction to fear, danger, pain, and submissiveness

  • Original language description

    Behavioral patterns, including sexual behavioral patterns, are usually understood as biological adaptations increasing the fitness of their carriers. Many parasites, so-called manipulators, are known to induce changes in the behavior of their hosts to increase their own fitness. Such changes are also induced by a parasite of cats, Toxoplasma gondii. The most remarkable change is the fatal attraction phenomenon, the switch of infected mice's and rat's native fear of the smell of cats toward an attraction to this smell. The stimuli that activate fear-related circuits in healthy rodents start to also activate sex-related circuits in the infected animals. An analogy of the fatal attraction phenomenon has also been observed in infected humans. Therefore, we tried to test a hypothesis that sexual arousal by fear-, violence-, and danger-related stimuli occurs more frequently in Toxoplasma-infected subjects. A cross-sectional cohort study performed on 36,564 subjects (5,087 Toxoplasma free and 741 Toxoplasma infected) showed that infected and noninfected subjects differ in their sexual behavior, fantasies, and preferences when age, health, and the size of the place where they spent childhood were controlled (F(24, 3719) 1/4 2.800, p < .0001). In agreement with our a priori hypothesis, infected subjects are more often aroused by their own fear, danger, and sexual submission although they practice more conventional sexual activities than Toxoplasma-free subjects. We suggest that the later changes can be related to a decrease in the personality trait of novelty seeking in infected subjects, which is potentially a side effect of increased concentration of dopamine in their brain.

  • Czech name

  • Czech description

Classification

  • Type

    J<sub>x</sub> - Unclassified - Peer-reviewed scientific article (Jimp, Jsc and Jost)

  • CEP classification

    AN - Psychology

  • OECD FORD branch

Result continuities

  • Project

    Result was created during the realization of more than one project. More information in the Projects tab.

  • Continuities

    P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Others

  • Publication year

    2016

  • Confidentiality

    S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Data specific for result type

  • Name of the periodical

    Evolutionary Psychology

  • ISSN

    1474-7049

  • e-ISSN

  • Volume of the periodical

    14

  • Issue of the periodical within the volume

    3

  • Country of publishing house

    US - UNITED STATES

  • Number of pages

    10

  • Pages from-to

    1-10

  • UT code for WoS article

    000391100500004

  • EID of the result in the Scopus database

    2-s2.0-85009461544