Lunar effect - Misplaced Pages

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The lunar effect is the supposed influence of the moon and its phases on human behaviour. However, the claims of a correlation of lunar phases to human behavior do not hold up under scientific scrutiny.

The origins of this superstitious belief are probably prehistoric and one reason for the global ubiquity of moon worship. This is reflected in cultural phenomena such as the harvest moon.

Scientific research

Psychologist Ivan Kelly of the University of Saskatchewan (with James Rotton and Roger Culver) did a meta-analysis of thirty-seven studies that examined relationships between the Moon's four phases and human behavior. The meta-analysis revealed no correlation. They also checked twenty-three studies, and neary half of them contained at least one statistical error (Kelly, Rotton, and Culver, 1986).

A study of 4,190 suicides in Sacramento County over a 58-year period showed no correlation to the phase of the moon. Kelly, Ronnie Martins, and Donald Saklofske evaluated twenty-one studies of births related to the phase of the moon and found no correlation.

Psychologist Arnold Lieber of the University of Miami reported a correlation of homicides in Dade County to moon phase, but later analysis of the data - including that by astronomer George Abell - did not support Lieber's conclusions.

Astronomer Daniel Caton analyzed 70,000,000 birth records from the National Center for Health Statistics, and no correlation between births and moon phase was found.

In 1959 Walter and Abraham Menaker reported that a study of over 510,000 births in New York City showed a 1% increase in births in the two weeks after full Moon. In 1967 one of those authors later studied another 500,000 births in New York City, and this time he found a 1% increase in births in the two-week period centered on the full Moon. In 1973 Osley, Summerville, and Borst studied another 500,000 births in New York City, and this time there was a 1% increase in births before the full Moon. In 1957 Rippmann analyzed 9,551 births in Danville, PA and found no correlation between the birth rate and the phase of the Moon (Abell and Greenspan, 1979).

Superstition

Pseudoscience

One theory is that the moon has a perceived relationship to fertility is due to the corresponding human menstrual cycle, which averages 28 days. However, only about 30% of women have a cycle length within two days of the average. Furthermore, the cycle of lunar phases is 29.53 days long, so the cycles would soon get out of synchronization.

Religion, folklore

Human sanity is popularly supposed to be affected by the phases of the moon, which is the origin of the word lunatic.

Werewolves are supposed to be transformed by the full moon.

Upon seeing the new moon some say you should turn over whatever silver you have in your pockets or handbag, which supposedly ensures prosperity for the following month.

Sinhalese Buddhism forbids sports from being played under the light of the full moon .

Prior to the advent of modern techniques, surgeons would supposedly refuse to operate on the full moon because of the increased risk of death of the patient through blood loss.

In the news

It has been alleged that the full moon may have influenced voter behaviour in the US 2000 presidential election .

Police in Toledo, Ohio record that crime rises by five per cent during nights with a full moon . (Also see the external link below to "Toledo police findings".)

Police in Kentucky have also blamed temporary rises in crime on the full moon . This was based on there being three car chases within a four-hour period.

A survey in the UK finds that car accidents rise by up to 50 per cent during full moons .

Notes

References

Bob Berman, Fooled by the Full Moon - Scientists search for the sober truth behind some loony ideas, Discover, September 2003, page 30.

George Abell and Barry Singer, Science and the Paranormal - probing the existence of the supernatural, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1981, chapter 5, ISBN 0-684-17820-6.

George Abell and Bennett Greenspan, The Moon and the Maternity Ward, Skeptical Inquirer, 4 (1979), page 17. Reprinted in Paranormal Borderlands of Science, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-148-7.

George Abell, review of the book The Alleged Lunar Effect by Arnold Lieber, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1979, 68-73. Reprinted in Science Confronts the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-314-5.

Ivan Kelly, James Rotton, and Roger Culver, The Moon Was Full and Nothing Happened, Skeptical Inquirer, Winter 1985-86, 129-143. Reprinted in The Hundredth Monkey - and other paradigms of the paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books.

Nicholas Sanduleak, The Moon is Acquitted of Murder in Cleveland, Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1985, 236-242. Reprinted in Science Confronts the Paranormal, edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books, ISBN 0-87975-314-5.

Dan Canton, Natality and the Moon Revisited: Do Birth Rates Depend on the Phase of the Moon?, Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol 33, No. 4, 2001, p.1371.

External links

Skeptics of the lunar effect
Toledo police findings, scroll down to August 31, 2002
Straight Dope article
Dan Canton, Birth rates and the Phase of the Moon

Category:

Moon myths