Pattern of money allocation in experimental games supports the stress hypothesis of gender differences in Toxoplasma gondii-induced behavioural changes

Title:

Pattern of money allocation in experimental games supports the stress hypothesis of gender differences in Toxoplasma gondii-induced behavioural changes

Creator:

Lindová, Jitka, Kuběna, Aleš A., Šturcová, Hana, Křivohlavá, Romana, Novotná, Martina, Rubešová, Anna, Havlíček, Jan, Kodym, Petr, and Flegr, Jaroslav

Identifier:

https://cdk.lib.cas.cz/client/handle/uuid:9cf0c99a-4aa7-4ef4-b269-5605df3089a4
uuid:9cf0c99a-4aa7-4ef4-b269-5605df3089a4
doi:10.14411/fp.2010.017

Subject:

Toxoplasma, stress hypothesis, experimental games, coping, and gender differences

Type:

model:article and TEXT

Format:

bez média and svazek

Description:

Latent toxoplasmosis has been previously found to cause behavioural and personality changes in humans, which are specific for each gender. Here we tested the stress hypothesis of these gender differences based on the assumption that latent toxoplasmosis causes long-term subliminal stress. In line with this hypothesis, the gender difference will appear specifically in situations with interpersonal context because in contrast to the typical individualistic coping style of men, women have a tendency to express elevated prosocial behaviour under stress. Altogether 295 biology students (29/191 females and 27/104 males infected by T. gondii) played a modified version of the Dictator Game and the Trust Game. As predicted, a gender difference in the effect of latent toxoplasmosis was found for the measure of reciprocal altruism in the Trust Game (p=0.016), but both genders appeared less generous when infected in the Dictator Game modified to minimize social connotation (p=0.048).

Language:

English

Rights:

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
policy:public

Coverage:

136-142

Source:

Folia parasitologica | 2010 Volume:57 | Number:2

Harvested from:

CDK

Metadata only:

false