It is sometimes commendable what all science finds out and at times you'd want to just question science 'Why?' if you could. A new research finds out that a parasite from cat's poop can affect your decision making skills. So if you are owning cats then you might have to rethink about throwing away the smelly litter tray. The feces of cats have a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, that can invade a human brain and affect the decision making skills. It may sound weird but that's how it has worked according to a new study.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by Dr. Stefanie Johnson (University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, US) and her colleagues. They conducted the study on 1,300 US students and exposed them to the parasites. The results they found out were incredible with many of them having brilliant entrepreneurship on their minds. They analysed it for 42 countries and found those exposed to the parasite from cat's poop had an increase in ‘entrepreneurial activity.’ In the study they mention, "Populations with higher T. gondii infection had greater intentions to start a business and higher levels of active entrepreneurship behaviours. Countries with higher T. gondii prevalence generally had a lower fraction of respondents who cited 'fear of failure' as a factor preventing them from initiating a business-related enterprise." Dogs or Cats? Know Who is Smarter and Why According to Scientific Backing!

So does it mean being around cat's poop solves the problem? No. The parasite has its negative effects. The ability to remove fear can affect adversely as shown in earlier studies. The parasite has been linked to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. The parasite may make you risk taking but it could also end up in foolish risks being taken with 'no fear of failure' to hold you back. The group studied the effect of Toxoplasma gondii on rats and saw that rats were killed more as they took more risks and showed no fear of the cats. So while, the exposure may make you risk taking, we are not sure if you'd want to near a cat's poop to do that. That sounds more of a risk too!

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 26, 2018 09:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).