This is the real s: sexual attraction is shaped by gut bacteria, infectious diseases, and parasites.
This is "your" brain?
Behind our sexual impulses -- whom we feel attracted to and why -- complex biological interactions help determine our emotions, our obsessions, and our revulsions... This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society.
"From start to finish, [McAuliffe] spins a consistently engrossing tale of invasive creatures that can alter your behavior and outlook, depress your cognitive functioning, and even make you more violent or sexually aggressive."
This is Your Brain on Parasites
"From start to finish, [McAuliffe] spins a consistently engrossing tale of invasive creatures that can alter your behavior and outlook, depress your cognitive functioning, and even make you more violent or sexually aggressive."
-
Heather Havrilesky, Book Forum
This is Your Brain on Parasites
Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers
orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey.
With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them.
With astonishing precision, parasites can coax rats to approach cats, spiders to transform the patterns of their webs, and fish to draw the attention of birds that then swoop down to feast on them.
Humans are
hardly immune to the profound influence of parasites. Organisms we pick
up from our own pets are strongly suspected of changing our personality
traits and contributing to recklessness, impulsivity -- even suicide.
Parasite Rex: Inside Bizarre World of Nature... |
Parasites influence our species on the cultural level, too.
McAuliffe documents a subconscious fear of contagion that impacts virtually every aspect of our lives, from our sexual attractions and social circles to our morals and political views.
Drawing on a huge body of research, she argues that our
dread of contamination is an evolved defense against parasites -- and it is often a
double-edged sword. The horror and revulsion we feel when we come in
contact with people who appear diseased or dirty helped pave the way for
civilization.
But it may also be the basis for major divisions in
societies that persist to this day.
In the tradition of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish, this book s both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human. More
In the tradition of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel and Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish, this book s both a journey into cutting-edge science and a revelatory examination of what it means to be human. More
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