Your gut microbes might encourage criminal behavior
1 min read
Summary
Each of us hosts vast communities of tiny bacteria, archaea, fungi and even viruses all over our bodies and the largest of these resides in our guts which are host to trillions of them.
In some ways, this means we’re more microbe than human and these microbes can influence our behaviour.
In theory, this could mean that microbes control us more than we think and could even explain criminal behaviour.
Research into the links between microbes and behaviour is in its early stages, but scientists have already considered how microbes influence the nervous system and communication with the brain.
Legal applications have been termed Legalome and a better understanding of the links could affect legal proceedings, as well as shaping crime prevention and rehabilitation efforts.
However, any links are likely to be extremely complicated and pinning down precise links between certain microbes and criminal behaviour will be difficult, if not impossible.