How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society
April 25, 2016
Science journalist McAuliffe takes an “unabashedly parasite-centric view of the world” to suggest that perhaps microorganisms are actually the ones in control of human lives, with parasitic manipulation guiding human behavior and thoughts. Noting that correlation does not equal causation, McAuliffe reports on provocative studies that link contagious vectors—such as the feline-associated, behavior-changing Toxoplasma gondii, which was the subject of her virally popular article in the Atlantic—to mental illness and libido fluctuations, and others that link organisms thought of as symbionts, such as human gut bacteria, to obesity and personality. McAuliffe also presents some well-established yet still astonishing facts about neuroparasitology. The hairworm, for example, makes crickets behave erratically and head for water, leaving them easy prey, while the Ophiocordyceps fungus turns carpenter ants into “zombie ants.” But by the book’s end, she careens wildly toward biological determinism regarding a “behavioral immune system” that causes humans to shun the abnormal and unknown. She addresses studies linking visceral experiences of physical disgust with xenophobia and moral conservatism, and others that have connected living in an area prone to disease with developing a collectivist culture. McAuliffe presents her collected research—often from small, nearly anecdotal studies—less as fact than in a spirit of exploration. Agent: Zoë Pagnamenta, Zoë Pagnamenta Agency.