For years, scientists have formulated factors that could predict the results of the World Cup. They've taken everyday economical and historical scenarios, like the state of the economy, and developed statistics to show that a good economy causes the success of a particular team in the World Cup. But now, a scientist has found a new connection between World Cup results and a brain parasite found in cats.
Neuroscientist Patrick House has found that the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, which is commonly found in the stomach of a cat because that is the only place it can reproduce, making its way into the human brain has affected the results of World Cup games.
"In the knockout round of this year's tournament, eight out of eight winners so far have been the teams whose countries had higher rates of Toxo
infection," said House. "If we go back to the 2006 World Cup, seven out of eight knockout round winners could be predicted by higher Toxo rates. The one exception to the rule was Brazil's defeat of Ghana, a match between two nations that each have very high rates."
But House's reasoning for believing in this correlation doesn't end at World Cup wins. He also found another striking coincidence in which the teams are ranked.
"It get's better," House said. "Rank the top 25 FIFA team countries by Toxo rate and you get, in order from the top: Brazil (67 percent), Argentina (52 percent), France (45 percent), Spain (44 percent) and Germany (43 percent). Collectively, these are the teams responsible for eight of the last 10 World Cup overall winners. Spain, the only one of the group never to have won a cup, is no subpar outlier -- the
Spaniards have the most World Cup victories of any perpetual runner-up."
