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Full Moon Effect on Behavior Minimal
Beware whee the moon is full. People will party.
Dogs will bite. Robbers will steal. Murderers will
kill.
Contrary to popular belief, however, the
frequency of these behaviors will probably be no
more significant than on any other night of the
year, according to scientific reviews of the theory
that the full moon alters the way humans and
wildlife behave.
"My own opinion is that the case for full moon
effects has not been made," said Ivan Kelly, a
Canadian psychologist at the University of
Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Kelly has published 15 papers on the topic and
reviewed more than 50 others, including one that
covered some 200 studies. He concludes that there
is not strong evidence of an effect.
Will this month's full moon cause erratic
behavior? Research indicates that for each study
supporting this belief, one exists to refute
it.
Case in point: Two separate studies published in
the December 23, 2000 issue of the British
Medical Journal contradict each other on the
question of whether animals bite people more during
a full moon.
Chanchall Bhattacharjee and colleagues at the
Bradford Royal Infirmary in Bradford, England,
reviewed 1,621 patients admitted to the infirmary's
emergency room between 1997 and 1999 for animal
bites and found that the chances of being bitten
were twice as high on or around full-moon days.
But Simon Chapman at the University of Sydney in
Australia compared dates of admission for dog bites
to public hospitals in Australia with dates of the
full moon over a 12-month period and found no
positive relation between the full moon and dog
bites.
In fact, Chapman found that full-moon days were
associated with slightly lower admissions—4.6
compared with 4.8 per day. Of the 18 days with more
than 10 admissions, the maximum peak centered on
the New Year holiday. Full moons coincided with
none of the peaks.
Chapman, who said the study was a "one-off
curiosity driven exercise," has no idea why the
full moon appears to cause animals in England to
bite more humans but has no bearing on when dogs in
Australia bite.
Similar contradictions can be found when
comparing many other studies as well, such as
whether or not violence, police arrests, or self
poisoning increase during a full moon, according to
Eric Chudler, a psychologist at the University of
Washington in Seattle.
"Of the studies I have read, I find that there
is very little evidence that the full moon has a
direct effect on human or animal behavior," he
said.
Selective Memory
Regardless of what the studies say, the power of
the moon is often used to explain a wide range of
events, from human insanity, violent crimes, and
traffic accidents to putting people in a
celebratory and romantic mood.
Why? "One reason is that people have selective
memories," said Chudler. "When something unusual
happens and there is a full moon, people might
notice the moon and assign blame."
Another mistake, according to Chudler, is
failing to make the distinction between correlation
and causation. He notes that just because a study
finds a relationship between a full moon and
certain behavior, it does not mean the moon caused
this behavior.
"These are correlational studies," he said.
Kelly suggested that people who conduct studies
on the relationship between the full moon and human
behavior often do not collect data throughout the
entire month to see if the behavior is more
elevated at full-moon time compared to the rest of
the month.
Another problem, suggests Kelly, lies in media
coverage.
"Journalists pay too much attention to finding
sensational news or news that will support
interesting results," he said. "Hence
[they] ignore the findings of studies and
tend to prefer stories or anecdotes from policemen
or nurses." Or studies purportedly backed by a
tequila manufacturer.
According to a report in the British newspaper
The Daily Telegraph Mexican tequila
distiller Jose Cuervo sponsored a psychiatrist at
Kings College in London to study the association
between the full moon and strange behavior as
portrayed in literature.
The psychiatrist, Glenn Wilson, found that the
full moon has been portrayed in folklore and
legends for centuries as cause for celebration,
particularly in the times before modern
lighting.
"There is good reason to believe that people's
personalities do change around the time of the full
moon, not because of any astronomical force, but
because it creates the optimum lighting conditions
for feeling carefree and mischievous," Wilson told
the paper.
Source: John Roach,
7/13/03, news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1218_021218_moon.html
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